Project 'Radio Noise'
by HoloHoro
Summary: Index never fell on Touma's balcony, Accelerator never killed a clone to reach Level 6; he never got the chance. Infact, 'RADIO NOISE' rose up and took the form of an underground organisation with a hidden agenda.
1. Duty Bound

"Duty Bound"

A quiet, abandoned factory lay dormant in nights enveloping darkness within the 7th district of Academy City. Only the sound of lovers can interrupt its silence as a young man and teenage girl sneak in through the front door. The main room was almost bare bar a few boxes. A few chairs and a control panel with an automated door next to it were the only other outstanding features. The girl stood a little over five foot and wore a beige high school woollen vest and white shirt with a tan skirt. The obvious difference separating her from any other teenager was a set of high-tech green glowing goggles on her head.

"Hey this place is pretty sweet, how'd you find it?" the young man asks the child. He stood just less than six foot and wore a tropical patterned shirt with black trousers and possessed an obscenely large backpack. The girl didn't respond for a few moments, she was moving things around the room, shifting the very little furniture present. She pulled out a guitar case from behind a pile of boxes and opens the buckles.

" "Work" MISAKA replies" she responded, talking in third person. She opens the guitar case and looks up to see the young man moving towards her. In a panic she pulls out a rifle from the case and kicks it away in the man's direction. The child then proceeds to lay a volley of fire on him. However, he stands still not even bothered by the hot lead coming his way.

"I thought you were a bit too easy. Coming on to me, bringing me to a secluded spot in the dead of the night... Ha. Well who put you up to it? What's the bounty?" A flurry of questions comes from the man who was not even fazed by a barrage of bullets. The bullets seemed to dance around him.

The shock expression on the child's face told the story of her inner thoughts; disgust, contempt and outright fear appeared in all their colours on the face of an innocent child, with the eyes of a war veteran. Out of ammo, she makes a dash for the guitar case and snatches a few magazines and a couple of stray bullets then proceeds to pour them into her pockets before receiving a blow to the head, shattering the goggles that were resting calmly on top of her brow on a few moments ago. The child riled in pain as the goggles' shards fall and impregnates the skin around her eyes.

"Well, lucky I never pack light, don't you say?" he commented, removing a tool-belt and grenades from the backpack along with some plastic explosives. All the while, the girl cries in pain in front of him until she notices the distinct sound of a pulled grenade pin. With all mustered strength, she moves an unwilling body towards her rifle and flees to a corner of the room, passing a few support structures.

The man throws a grenade in her direction, to which the child responds with evasive manoeuvres incapable of regular human beings, more or less a girl her age. Firing a few pot shots whilst retreating, she backs into a support structure she just past, but this time a feint ticking noise can be heard.

A sick grin develops on the man's face as he pulls a detonator out of his backpack and clamps on the trigger. Diving out of the way of the collapsing pylon, the girl receives a sharp pain in her leg; shrapnel of the previously exploded grenades had been forced into her leg from the last detonation. A dust cloud forms from the fallen pylon and the girl uses this time to remove the larger parts of the shrapnel and flees into the next room.

The next room seems much more technical than the previous; machines, storage boxes and fuel tanks populated its interior with other doors leading further into the factory, each accompanied with a control panel. Near that were more control panels similar to the one outside. More explosions are heard in the previous room as he yells for her to show herself.

The child moves towards a large cylinder in the corner of the room, limping from the shrapnel wound. Her head continues to bleed from the glass stuck around her forehead and eyes. Her vision beings to blur, her bloodied hand rests upon the cylinder and she squints to make out the writing on the abrasive, course steel. Receiving a slight glimpse at the words alone made a sickly smile appear on her face. She turned, awaiting her target with rifle equipped.

"Oh, you haven't bled out? You're going to be a bit more fun than I thought. Congratulate yourself." utters the shadow of the target, striding slowly closer towards the child. She returns him no words, but a smile that would shatter mirrors. He stumbles upon viewing her expression and mumbles the words; "O-Oh. You're awfully happy for a dead man, aren't you?"

" "I'm not dead yet" declares MISAKA as she reloads her rifle with tracer rounds." The girl responds with. She removes the magazine from the rifle, emptying the unused bullets from the cartridge and placing 3 red-tipped bullets in before reattaching the magazine to the gun. The metallic twang of the bullets hitting the concrete floor of the large room echoes an eerie silence throughout the factory.

"W-What is different ammo going to change? You still can't hit me with them" he stutters, reaching for a grenade on his belt. A bullet whizzes towards him, refracting around him. It hits a large box behind him and causes sirens to whirl. The doors shut close and "EMERGENCY" lights above them flash. The child's rifle barrel points straight from the bullets' trajectory. Her grin turns to a smirk.

" "Don't do that" warns MISAKA as she designates locations of interest around the room". Her finger points to large cylindrical vats around the room, much the same as the ones behind her.

"Those are-"

" "Hydrogen vats " interrupts MISAKA as she assumes your stupidity will make you look foolish and saves you from such a fate."

A wash of terror runs over the man as an understanding of his situation is bestowed upon him. The base of a tracer round is filled with pyrotechnics; pyrotechnics that will cause hydrogen to burn violently, sucking the oxygen from the surrounding air. This isn't even factoring in the amount stored in a vat or how well compressed it is. The child moves her gun to her chin. The short brown hair belonging to the child falls over her eyes and all that can be seen on her face is the trickle of blood and the same sickening smile reappearing.

" "What would be a more painful death?" Rhetorically asks MISAKA. "Death by gunshot, or a death by an inferno and lack of oxygen." " Quizzes the girl, taunting her opponent. "MISAKA knows from experience, but will let you find out on your own"

She moves the barrel from her chin and fumbles to grip it in one hand to point at the vat. The extra weight of the accessories attached to it makes handling with one hand near the trigger extremely difficult. As her arm wavers and the gun mimics, she fires a bullet into the vat. A loud 'ting' noise resonates as the bullet hits an inner support and bounces off, unable to penetrate the exterior. Her smirk disappears and she turns to find the man running at her with a plastic explosive in hand. With a tremendous blow, he knocks her to the ground and attaches the explosive to the lower part of her shirt. Taking a few steps back, the man removes a detonator from his backpack.

"Now, now. Let's think this through. You move, I blow your body into tiny little chunks, understand?"

The child's face becomes expressionless for mere moments. She notices her rifle more than a foot away and with only one round left. She comes to a realization that her death via the explosion would kill him by igniting the vats in the room. From this thought, a loud forced laugh resonates from the girl.

" "You haven't quite grasped what you are up against" declares MISAKA as she laughs at your stupidity" the girl announces and moves towards the vat and rubs up against it, attaching the explosive to the vat. Her sweater attaches itself as well and she removes it, leaving it limply connected to the vat. She turns to find the man has fled towards the locked doors. The explosive threat was merely a ruse to try and buy him some time to escape. She gives chase after retrieving her rifle from the ground.

The man notices her presence and turns, taking a fighting stance. Leading with a rifle butt blow, following up with a kick the child knocks the man against a nearby vat. Sliding down to the ground he discovers the child standing over him. Her shirt and skirt wavers as hydrogen seeps out of the vat the man was slammed into. Embarrassment may have overtaken the killer instinct as her undergarments become dangerously visible. This provides enough of a distraction for the man to sweep her legs and put her into a choke hold. Struggling to breathe and slowly blacking out, the child reaches for the displaced rifle and kicks it towards herself in the struggle. Gripping the weapon and holding it to her face, she pulls the trigger.

**BANG.**

A lifeless, bloody corpse of the child lay on the concrete floor. The blood runs and pools underneath the vat. Unscathed, the man tosses aside her corpse and wipes the blood from his hands onto his trousers. Regaining his breathe, he examines the altered path the bullet took after passing through the child's skull into the wall aside of the vat. With the hydrogen still whistling the man proceeds to the door trying to force it open. Unable to do so, he scans the room for an alternative exit with increasing haste. A locked room and a deadly gas isn't a pleasant situation.

With great fortune he discovers a window within reach of storage boxes piled on top of each other. He makes his way towards the window and shatters the glass with his already bloodied fist. Looking down from the window at the height of the drop, he notices a series of plastic explosives stuck on the wall. The fluorescent blinks are a dead giveaway, even for a civilian.

Then he spots it, the same girl as before at the bottom of the building giving him a somewhat intrusive look. He checks back at the vat to see the girl dead in a pool of her own blood and doubles back to the exact same person at the bottom of the building.

From the corner of his eye, the man views a sharp glint. Following said glint, one by one the explosives begin to detonate creeping along the building's wall until finally exploding underneath him.

From the glint's source lays an enormous sniper rifle, its barrel smoking. Standing above it staring blankly into the night sky stands the same child from inside the factory and at the ground outside.

" "MISAKA 4598 reports target has possibly been decommissioned" says MISAKA as she requests confirmation on targets status"

" "MISAKA 3490 reports that the target fell within the pre-determined kill-zone and is requesting backup from MISAKA 3009 and MISAKA 5560 who are within deployment radius" "

"LAST ORDER detects-detects a cease in functioning of unit 7443. Unit is within infected "CANCEL ORDER" batch, so MISAKA is requesting-requesting that you confirm that unit's status along with target"

A conversation occurs between the girl and unknown entities through what seems to be telekinesis. The girl from the sniper's post begins to dismantle her weapon and departs into the city night whilst the girl near the site of the detonated explosives moves to enter the factory and is met with two identical beings. The three of them, armed with identical rifles, goggles and clothes to the child inside the factory as well themselves, move to enter and discover the remnants of the battle held within. Explosion craters, a destroyed support structures, gunpowder residue and used ammunition scatter the main room.

One of the three girls approaches the terminal for the doors as the other two search the room. She lowers her goggles and they begin to glow a dark green. Placing her hand on the terminal, electricity begins to spark from her hand and the door's mechanism burst open.

Within lay both the explosive munitions man and the child. The child had long been dead; her blood had darkened and became hard, the gun barrel and handle covered with the darkened blood. A grovelling image of the man is also identifiable. The girl with her goggles already equipped moves towards the man, who only just realises their presence and tries to scurry away. Held down by the girl, she smiles to the others who are busy placing the dead child in a body bag.

" "Remember me" asks MISAKA as she greets you friendly." This girl, as well, speaks in third person. The man's face turns to shock as he tries to grasp his words to respond to her question. " "MISAKA told you, didn't she? You have no idea what you were up against" says MISAKA as she revels in your horrified expression."

The girl in her goggles places her hand on the man's heart and begins to generate electricity in it, sending the voltage into the man. He convulses due to the current surging through him, only to be left with a horrific expression engraved on his face.

" "Target is confirmed dead, unit 7443 fatally wounded from combat. Preliminary forensics determines suicide." informs MISAKA, as she moves her attention to transporting the unresponsive unit."

With the man dead and the dead girl in a body bag for transport, the three girls leave the factory. On the way out, with one of the girls carrying the dead girl on her shoulder they come face to face with a boy. He was sulking and dragging his feet until he fell with a loud thud, as one should when they take such an approach to walking in the dead of the night. Scratching his head and mumbling something along the lines of "just my luck", he turns his attention to the 3 girls who are almost in front of him. He stares blankly at them and they return a similar gaze. Without a word they continue away from the location, redirecting their attention towards a distant destination and move off into the darkness.

Left speechless, the boy returns home. Thinking what he saw was just his imagination; he had no clue of the battle he faced ahead of him in the coming days. This is Academy City, the city where science has taken a new form and has become an uncontrollable, malignant and destructive force.

"Duty Bound"

**END**


	2. Web of Lies

"Web of Lies"

**August 24, 2020**

The sound of an alarm clock is never one associated with joy. So, it goes without saying that after the 10th time it has gone off you aren't very particular with getting up. This young boy certainly wasn't. He had encountered triplets carrying a body bag in the early hours of the previous morning - it isn't something you forget easily. It also happens to be something to scare a young kid such as this one into bed all day.

"Oh, Kami, still nappin', eh? Or were you planning on skipping the entire day? Just my luck I got here then, right?" announced a voice along with the distinct sound of drywall breaking as a young lad with blonde hair and out of style sunglasses made his presence heard.

"Ah… I'll be a bit late today. I stayed up all night so it's probably for the best…" groaned "Kami", or at least that was the intended message. Whether or not it made it through the pillow, the sheets and the mattress to its recipient is another story.

"A'right, a'right. I'll tell Teach' then that you're gonna be a bit late. That midget is gonna bite my head off, ya' know. You're her favourite." responded the presence from the doorway in a terribly colloquial fashion of speaking. One would have to be fluent in several street languages to comprehend him.

With that, the linguistically challenged lad left "Kami's" room, creating as much noise as he did entering with the exception of not breaking anything. Reefing his head from underneath the mountain of manchester accumulated on his bed, he slowly adjusted to the light before once again taking a horizontal position on his bed.

However, the rest and relaxation he was neglecting half of his day for eluded him. Images of the events he partook in the night before plagued him, so vivid they were that he reached out to stop one of the girls only to find his hand collide with the wall to which his bed was positioned next too.

As time elapsed and his efforts to sleep remained in vain, he decided that what the rest he wanted was far beyond his reach. Within 5 minutes of rolling out of his thought catacomb he had laid in for the past 3 hours, he was dressed and prepared for school.

"Wallet, check. Bag, check. Phone, check." He began to list off objects he'd need for the day ahead, or what remained of it. Satisfied with the preparations, he left the small room. Ignoring the gaping hole in the dry wall he's early hours visitor left as well as the thought of how to explain it too his dorm supervisor, a feint 'click' of the lock on the door resounded and he began to walk in the school's direction.

The most important things are almost always the ones forgotten when leaving a house alone. Is the oven still on? The dryer? The stove? However, for a student living alone without any knowledge as how to operate those apparatuses the most important thing would be eating. The time told 2:15, very much past lunch. The boy had neglected breakfast, so this only intensified his need for sustenance.

There was an outdoor café students from around the district attended, it was fairly popular and "hip" as it sold all its food in the shape of animals. However, that came with an increased price tag. But when one has little to no other options in front of them, a price tag is no barrier.

Arriving at the destination, he moved towards the queue and examined the prices. Further inspection showed that he had just enough money on his person to buy the least expensive item on the menu, so choice was not a luxury he could afford. After confirming what he was going to buy he noticed that the queue had halted and a dispute between customer and management could be heard. Well, dispute is perhaps too lenient of a word - "uproar" would be more suited to the volume of noise being produced. Curiosity was about to kill the cat. "Kami" was a now prime and proper gentleman, yet he gave in to take a peep of the disgruntled customer. He almost jumped out of his skin to see who it was.

It was one of the teenage girls he met yesterday, no doubt about it. She had short brown hair, a floral hair pin and styled a beige vest, white shirt and tan skirt. He took note that she didn't wear any goggles and her long socks, which most probably associated with her school uniform clumped near her shoes. Obviously she didn't take much pride in her appearance

"I. Am. Telling. You. I have gotten enough points for that damned Frog-o strap! Now hand it over chump!" roared the pip-squeak, slamming her foot on the ground to every word and having what looked to be a tantrum over a phone strap.

The shop had a point system. Every time you bought something in-store it had a certain amount of points, and if you collected enough you could claim some of the prizes. The boy didn't have the kind of money to continuously eat there and owning a prize from the store showed you had in your possession a healthy wealth.

From these little titbits of info just examining her behaviour and appearance, he deduced that she was a wealthy, spoiled brat that was probably accepted no matter how she appeared in front of her audience, most likely because of name rather than any of her "amazing" personality traits.

The girl's determined effort seemed to be in vain as she snatched what food she had ordered and stormed off to a bench alone and began to viciously devour one of the items she had purchased. "Kami" had all but forgotten about his appetitive and moved to question the girl about last night's events. Taking a seat next to her without asking permission earned him a sideway glance but little more. He thought about how to approach the subject.

"Hey, howdy, how'sit? The names Touma Kamijou. I saw you had a bit of trouble getting your food earlier…" he introduced, unconvincingly and unnaturally. It hurt to watch and was excruciating to say. She turned to him with a dysfunctional reaction, she possessed puppy dog eyes and a pleading face.

"It's wasn't the food! It was the phone strap! They wouldn't give it to me, even though I had the points for it!" she was crying crocodile tears. He knew something was wrong with her story and attitude.

"Oh, so you gave them the points and they wouldn't give it to you?"

"Well… I lost the card last night… But I swear I had enough! They probably even know my face!" Here was the perfect chance to question her about the events of last night. It was as if she asked him to question her about it.

"So, what were you doing last night to have lost your card?" he inquired. Her body language spoke a thousand words as she turned away from him and began eating again, ignoring him and his previous question.

"I'll be a little more forward - what were you doing in 7th district early hours in the morning?" the boy pressed to the girl. She turned to him with a mouth half full of whatever processed animal that was shelled with wheat crumbs in a cute chicken shape. Or what was left from it after a couple of her voracious bites.

"Huh? Wh-who the hell do you think you're talking too? And what kind of question is that for someone you just met? Can't you see I'm a little ticked at the moment?" she retorted, spitting crumbs over her blazer, to which she remedied by brushing them onto him. She acted as if the conversation they had earlier hadn't happened. Touma glared at her to which was returned by what could be described as a death stare.

"Well, I'm talking to one of the girls I saw last night near a factory." To this comment, she raised a defensive stance and checked to see if any glares had come her way. She searched the crowd for invasive eyes as he continued to talk.

"Well, if you lost your card doing something shady, then I just want to know what happened. I'm not a cop, you know. It just kept me up last night, you see. So… where are your sisters, then? They don't wag? You guys were wearing the same uniform, right?" She continued to tense until the word "sisters" occurred. This triggered a calming response, lowering her guard. Sighing and showing a somewhat relieved smile, she continued with her meal, or what was left of it as it was butchered from her stressing.

"Ah, yeah we weren't doing anything shady. They… they go to a special school… I never see them during the day so we spend our time together at night." She seemed reluctant - she was defiantly holding something back and was blatantly lying about a "special school".

"But… at that hour of the morning…? Where are your goggles, what was with the body ba-" before he could finish, she slammed her hand over his mouth. Her eyes darkened when he started the noun "body bag". People around began to stare at their actions. She lent in close and with her other hand grabbed one of his and held it to her chest. Playing the quarrelling couple card released the invasive eyes of the people around them. After realising this, she violently threw Touma's hand away, still covering his mouth and began to whisper in his ear.

"I don't know who you are, why you are talking to me or what you think you saw, but I'll tell you now… Don't get involved. This city is dark beyond your wildest imagination. And if you find out what is at its core – Well, I guess this monster will just have to find room in her heart for one more crime."

She pulled away, slapping her hand to her face and dragging it down as some minute sparks generated from the friction of the surfaces colliding. The sparks covered the pitch black darkness in her eyes. After signalling a throat slitting gesture in his direction she pulled her bag over the right shoulder and moved on her way. Left in shock, Touma remained on the bench as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.

'A dark side no one can see? A monster… that girl?' he questioned himself extensively. As he came out of his thought bubble he realized the people who were staring at them earlier were whispering things too one another.

"Wasn't that the Level 5 girl? Doesn't she go to a prestigious school or something? She was acting like such a child!"

"Yeah you bet. What was her name again…? Something like Mishka, Motoka..?"

"Mikoto Misaka, the "Railgun". It's crazy! I mean, what is she doing with someone from such a lowly school?"

Academy City was not by any sense of the word "normal". Its technologies were 20 years ahead of the rest of the world and had a special school program which had no equivalent in the world - it trains its students to identify their inner abilities and strengthen them. They were known as "Psychics". Regular school curriculum was almost non-existent, bar to those without an ability to harness. Touma was one such person, he had no psychic abilities. He was a "CHILD ERROR".

If one would discover that their entire existence in an area was invalid, it would not be foolish to leave and never return. However, this option was not available to Touma. There was an unwritten rule upon entering Academy City - Once you enter, you can never leave. You were never told outright that you may not leave, but incidents such as your application for leave was lost in transmission or you were withheld at the city's boundaries even though your documentation was valid. Punishment for leaving without permission was death. Whether it was shot at the boarder by the city's police, the "ANTI-SKILL" or pursued by a bounty hunter - death was insured for you and in rare cases, the escapee's family.

Thus Touma was stranded within the city. Social isolation was a prominent issue in Academy City. One's psychic power limit or "level" determined the school you attended and your class in society. For those reasons Touma was at the bottom of the food chain, he had no ability and attended a school that catered to the special educational requirements of CHILD ERRORs. He was the plankton of the sea, the lowest of the low.

And she was at the top.

So it was only natural that the rumours he heard swirling around about the girl he had just met came to him as a shock. He had heard of the name "Railgun" but never thought that it would be a teenage girl with a very delicate emotional balance. He pondered for moments, if he let her get away now, the previous conversation along with the early morning encounter would only plague his thoughts and he'd never find an answer. Academy City is huge - he would probably never see her again, especially after the dummy spit that probably ended her business relationship with the café she just attended.

But how would he restart a conversation with her? The ending of the last one wasn't too pleasant, but then again a death threat never is. 'What was the reason she was so agitated, before he pushed the envelope?' he thought to himself, standing up from the seat he had been seated in since the brown haired "monster" left him wallowing in his inner thoughts. His stomach then interrupted the incredibly slow, an easily distractible train of thought he was in possession of.

Turning his attention from pursuing the power-packet child to obtaining the energy required in which to pursue her with, he noticed the strap she had gotten so worked up about earlier. Touma was then faced with two issues in acquiring it however - he didn't have a card to acquire the points for the strap nor the funds to gain said points.

Normally, those would be obstacles for any law-abiding citizen, something of which Touma was now. Previous to his life however, he grew up in a rough part of town and knew how to throw and take a punch, so surely petty theft wasn't something new to him. However, the extent it went against his newfound morals troubled him.

Approaching the counter, he slyly greets the cashier with a sliding glance. The cashier smiles and tilts her head giving a "What'll have?" look. Her cute smile unnerved him - he would most likely cost this young girl her job and judging by her attitude she probably just started.

He hesitated to answer her and his lips moved to fit the phrase "just my luck" instead. He closed his eyes and slammed his right fist into the glass barrier, shattering the glass and snatching at the phone strap. He pulled it out and cut his arm and hand in the process. The cashier stood in shock as Touma ran off in the direction Mikoto had.

"What's this commotion, Maika?" hastily questioned the manager of the store, running towards the poor girl in tears.

"He-He stole one of the prizes! He slammed his fist through the guard and took it!" She wept, trying to dry her tears and remain professional.

"That's not possible! You insolent little -…! The guard was created by our resident psychic's barrier ability! There is no way anyone can pierce it, right Shizuri?" he responded. A girl in her early twenties with long, brown hair responded with a nod. The cashier sniffed and looked up at the manager. Customers in the queue spoke out in defence of what she had said to be fact.

"I'm not going to be fired, am I? I can't have the maid school find out about this…" she continued to cry. The tears that had momentarily stopped began to flow again. The manager responded to her plea with a softened face and a reassuring pat on the back. The child smiled to the man's change of heart.

If you questioned anyone about what kind of person Touma was, anyone who knew him well would tell you he was a strong, kind person that never quite thinks things through. Well, for the moment he has lived up to one of those traits, not thinking anything through properly. Some time had passed since Mikoto had left so what little chances of tailing her vanished fairly rapidly. Or so it seemed, until coming across a member of "JUDGEMENT" with an identical uniform as to hers.

JUDGEMENT is something very similar to an organized neighbourhood watch. They wear a specially designed armband to distinguish themselves from civilians as they have no other uniform. Operatives are generally volunteer psychics who use their abilities to buff out crime in the city. They can arrest and detain potential suspects for ANTI-SKILL to imprison. Many adult CHILD ERRORs join ANTI-SKILL as they have access to weapons to inhibiting abilities, something very attractive to jealous "errors", so the relationship between the two organisations is one of necessity but not entirely pleasant.

Touma went about approaching the JUDGEMENT operative. As he took strides closer he noticed her more delicate features – Very childish, dyed pink, straggly hair held up in two pigtails and her socks being worn in similar fashion to Mikoto. 'Perhaps that is the right way to wear them' he thought to himself. She was at least one and a half feet shorter than he was which only added to her childlike appearance.

"Uhh, excuse me miss" Touma politely interrupted her silence. She turned to him with a friendly smile and a childlike gleam in her eye.

"Well yes, good sir. Do have a need for my assistance?" she responded with incredibly good manners and a high society way speaking. It somewhat unnerved him in the same fashion as the cashier earlier.

"Well, I was wondering if you could tell me what your school your uniform belongs to?"

"Why, good sir, do you not know of the Tokiwadai All-Girls School? It may perhaps be most famous for the standard of excellence it produces continuously and rather steep cost to enter… or maybe for our most famous student, the "Railgun", perhaps?"

"Oh, isn't that Mikoto Misaka, the one that makes the 'buzz' noise when she gets angry, yeah? So you must know her, huh?" her face began to screw up, her lips twitched and eyes squinted. Maybe bringing her name and attitude up so casually was not a good idea.

"How… how dare you, you insolent swine! You know **NOTHING** about the mistress and have **NO** right to speak, nor refer to her in such a familiar tone!" her tone turned aggressive yet remained refined. Her disposition reminded Touma of an image he saw in a comic of a large, ugly dog with rabies wearing a top hat and monocle greeting other dogs with a muffled "Good day to you, sir". However, he didn't find the current situation as humourous.

"Well, you see… I need to have a word to her about last night and her sisters…" the childlike JUDGEMENT member turned to stone. She was temporarily petrified at his comment before returning to her aggressive stance.

"Th-The mistress is seeing a man! And one of such low quality! I shall have no part in this! The mistress is to be mine and mine allow, you insufficient pig-dog!" the impression of this young lady was quickly becoming one of high nobility too one of jealous brat. She remained this way as she processed the information he had just said. "But the mistress has no sisters, she is an only child. How odd of a choice for a lie…"

"…That's not what she said earlier… Look "little missy", I just need you to help me ask her some questio-" he was interrupted by the enraged child

"**ARGH**! Its Miss Shirai to you, ape-man. And **NO** I won't help you. Such a low quality human being is no threat to our relationship, but one must nip all competition in the bud before it receives a chance to blossom into trouble." As she finished her rant, her body began to vibrate rapidly before disappearing in front of his eyes. He stared in amazement - she must be a "Teleporter", one that can move objects instantaneously, but to move her entire body means she would be a very high level.

"Oh, I can't move you it seems… That's incredibly odd…much like your lies." a voice from behind Touma rang. It was the child he was just speaking to with a quiet and intrigued tone. "I'll let you off for now, silver-tongued gorilla. But be sure to find trouble if I find you with the mistress."

She began shuddering again and within the space of a blink she disappeared. Releasing a sigh at the mere thought of recollecting the previous conversation, Touma checked his phone to find that school had finished. It was now 3:45, he had lost at least an hour and a half between meeting Mikoto at the café and having a rather heated discussion with Miss Shirai.

Concluding that all hope of finding her at her school was lost, he conceded to use his future free days to search the area around the school for her. Miss Shirai seemed awfully close to Mikoto, so perhaps investigating her at the local JUDGEMENT branch would also lead him closer. Regardless, it was far too late to attempt anything of that caliber today.

Due to Academy City being a schooling city, very strong curfews are in place, often requesting all students to be inside their designated quarters if they have no adult supervision before nightfall. The TREE DIAGRAM had predicted that sunset was to be at 5:30 and thus so was the curfew.

The TREE DIAGRAM was a satellite owned by meteorologist in Academy City to accurately predict weather, sea swells and daylight. Some insidious rumours surround it, but most are just pure conjecture.

Feeling he had made some sort of breakthrough in the mystery that had only been recently presented to him, Touma felt that it was worth taking the day off in the long run. He had discovered the surname of the girls he saw and the school they attended. Only a few, darker questions remained unanswered. Returning to the entrance of his dormitory, the badly spoken fellow from this morning was waiting at the door.

"Nahh, Kami, you sly dog you. If you were having the day off to meet a girl, that's all you need to say. I, Motoharu Tsuchimikado, am forever your bro' and will endlessly help your endeavour to obtain a woman!" spouted the badly dressed teen. 'Was he spying on me all day…' Touma thought to himself.

"Uh… ha, ha. No problem, Motoharu. Your help is appreciated at any time." Slurred Touma, nervous to what he actually meant, or his intentions behind it.

"Well, it looks like it'll be you helping me more like it, haha! That girl waiting at your door is a pretty fine catch if you ask me. Rich too, she has an expensive looking guitar case and a rich girls uniform. You got'ta tell me your secrets one day." He grinned, waving him off and giving him a "go get her" thumbs up.

Touma still didn't quite understand what Motoharu meant, until he came to the floor with his room on it. There stood one of the three girls he saw last night with a guitar case in hand. She had goggles on her head and a Tokiwadain All-Girls uniform. However, Mikoto said her sisters went to another school, yet Miss Shirai said Mikoto had no sisters.

This whole situation didn't add up.

" "Touma Kamijou, correct?" asks MISAKA as she confirms the identity of the person in front of her." spoke the girl with a stone cold expression on her face and in third person. Upon closer inspection to her facial features, her hair was styled minutely different to Mikoto and had seemingly dead, dull and unnatural eyes. Yet the resemblance the two girls shared was frightening.

"Y-Yeah, I guess so. You would be Mikoto's sister then, right?" he fumbled his words, for reasons unknown.

" "Sister?" rhetorically asks MISAKA as she ponders and prepares an answer. "I suppose that is a good presumption of our relationship" confirms MISAKA as she smiles in appreciation to thought you have given her." Her manner of speaking was even more annoying than that of Miss Shirai.

The conversation died for moments until Touma picked the initiative up again. He might be able to obtain more reliable information from this one apparently.

"So, would you like to come inside? I want to ask you some questions." The girl nodded firmly and he opened the door and led her inside. The second she stepped inside and when he closed the door - a certain uneasiness crept up on him. Thinking of it to be the thought of the broken wall, he pushed away thoughts of the bad omens.

She stood in the middle of the room, turning like clockwork to examine the remainder of the space inside. Touma could only watch her in pure amazement as to what she was doing. When satisfied with her analysis of the room, she placed her guitar case down on the tea table and sat on a pillow on the floor.

"So, Misaka what school do you go to? You're wearing a Tokiwadain All-Girls uniform."

" "MISAKA enjoys mimicking "Big Sis", it makes her feel more human." lies MISAKA as she carefully constructs a web of lies." She was lying directly to Touma and telling him that she is. This might be a little bit more difficult than previously thought.

"Then… Misaka, what were you doing last night at 7th district?" anxiously quizzed Touma. He wasn't sure if she would lie to him again.

" "MISAKA was killing a target for RADIO NOISE" responds MISAKA with a stern look on her face and whole-hearted honesty."

This girl in front of him just admitted to murder without being pressed. She flipped from lying about her relationship with Mikoto to admitting to murder. This was looking bad.

"S-So Mikoto actually killed someone…"

" "No. Big Sis has not directly talked to MISAKA. MISAKA has never seen Big Sis" Declares MISAKA, correcting your poorly constructed logic." So Mikoto wasn't with them… so then what was she doing last night? Who were the other two girls? This was looking to be something he truly did not want anything to do with.

"W-Well then I think it is about time for you to go, I'm a bit sleepy. I stayed up late last night as you know." He nervously laughed - the bad omen he ignored earlier was slowly revealing itself.

" "Unfortunately, I cannot allow that" announces MISAKA in a melancholy tone. "You are a target for project RADIO NOISE and thus must be dealt with in accordance to MISAKA's supervisors' instructions." "

The girl removed the buckles of her guitar case and prepared to remove its contents. With no possibility to escape and nowhere to hide, all Touma can do is watch as the girl in front of him unveils her case contents and wait to be "dealt with".

"Web of Lies"

**END**


	3. A Spartial Rescue

"A Spatial Rescue"

**August 24, 2020**

As the silent girl opposite to him reached into the guitar case she had brought into the room with her, Touma's heart sank to the bottom of his gullet. A gleam of a lens shine caused him to turn his concentration to the back of his eyelids for mere moments. He opened them to a clicking noise and a view of the child standing above him holding a rifle.

One apparently has their entire life 'flash' in their memories when faced with imminent death. It would be safe to assume that the situation he found himself in warranted the description of "life threatening" - yet none of the symptoms came with the disease. He didn't experience anything like a lightning fast black and white film filling in his entire life within a few seconds. He experienced nothing but the rotten taste in his throat and the sweat beads making contact with his brow.

It wasn't a good feeling.

The child pointed the highly technical rifle from across the tea table at Touma. An assumption of distance _could _be made, but it would just be better to assume that the only away he would avoid a bullet is if he could see into the future. Alas, he was only a CHILD ERROR with no powers. Death seemed almost certain.

Her dead eyes and frozen expression hadn't changed from when she pulled the weapon from the guitar case. Touma tried to get a good look of the object that would decommission him permanently but was temporarily blinded by the laser pointer that was directed into one of his eyes. He would live his last moments cursing a vague image of a gun.

Within seconds of opening his eyes again after being blinded by the laser, he squinted to see her prolonged expression change ever slightly. She was hesitating. Her fingers moved near the trigger, most likely only readjusting her grip on the deadly object that could end his life in an instant. He continued to look in her general direction with fear in his eyes until the space between them seemed to become visually distorted. As this was occurring, Touma could hear the audible 'Bang, bang, bang' of the automatic weapon firing but couldn't see it. He reflexively closed his eyes and tilted his head to the right as the terrifying noises began.

The 'banging' noises would soon be followed by a metallic 'twang' after the first two or three shots. Touma opened his eyes to see a Tokiwadain uniform splattered with blood on its left side, equivalent to the hip on the person standing before him. Guarding the uniform was one of the cleaning robots that littered the City's streets. It didn't sound its siren upon being damaged, so it must have been broken before it found its way into his room.

But how did it get there?

As the bullets stopped for moments and the click of a magazine detaching was audible, Touma looked up past the dripping wound of the uniform to see the pink, straggly hair of the JUDGEMENT member he met earlier – It was Miss Shirai.

Paying no attention to Touma and apparently her newly acquired wound, she used the time between the reloading to move from behind the cleaning robot and to attack the assailant with an array of judo manoeuvres. Initially dislodging the weapon and knocking her from the stance she had taken that supported the recoil of the weapon, Miss Shirai then proceeded to grab the opponent in an arm lock. The blank expression of Mikoto's sister changed to surprise for an instant. Following the momentary show of emotion by the cold killer the two combatants silhouettes began to blur. Touma blinked and they had disappeared. She had teleported both of them away from his room, though had not gone too far as screams could be heard outside of his dorm the instant they left. The boy collapsed when he realized his life was no longer in danger.

"I can't do anything… I'm only a Child Error… I can't shoot a gun, I can't Teleport and I can't do anything… I'll probably just get in the way if I follow her, especially with my bad luck." Touma mumbled to himself, wallowing in self-pity. He looked up to see the guitar case the girl had brought into his room. "I can't fight psychics … But I can fight for the truth!"

The small child-like Teleporter had moved the fight into the main street that Touma's dorm was on. As they reappeared, the girl with the goggles found herself looking into the sky between a pedestrian zone and sidewalk, until a foot found its way into disrupting said view. She cried in pain at the curb stomp to which was delivered, sending her head colliding into the concrete. It hurt, but it was not strong enough to kill her. A bloody nose, fractured skull and a few broken teeth were the only results of the move. Miss Shirai stepped back from the bleeding mess that was the girl on the sidewalk and pulled at the armband pinned to her left sleeve.

"I'm from JUDGEMENT. You're under arrest for intent to murder and possession of a deadly weapon. ANTI-SKILL will be here shortly. I suggest you desist resistance." announced Miss Shirai with all the intimidation her small frame could muster. She lost most of her refined way of speaking but still managed to remain elegant despite obviously being infuriated.

The seemingly defeated girl struggled to sit up, she wiped the blood oozing from her nose and spat out the broken teeth and a pint of blood. She began to raise both hands into the air as a sign of surrender, yet halfway up they detoured to her goggles and they proceeded to find their way lowered onto her eyes and began to glow. It happened in an instant.

The second the girl started to detour her arms from surrendering to lowering her goggles, Miss Shirai removed a belt of steal needles attached to her legs underneath her tan skirt. She waved her free hand over the needles and one by one they found themselves attached to the clothing of the girl while also being firmly rooted to concrete. She had pinned the criminal down, immobilizing her. The restrained criminal's hands generated electricity, but was unable direct it with her restricted hands. All that was mustered from her last ditch effort was the 'buzz' of life sparks and a distressed cry from the girl. The goggles continued to glow throughout her restricted fit of rage.

Miss Shirai sighed in relief in belief the battle was over. She immediately turned her attention to the wound received earlier. By now it had bled out a fair bit, she had been oblivious to her degrading condition due to the adrenaline and strenuous life-or-death activity she was previously preoccupied with. Her hands began to shake. She wasn't trying to teleport anything – her body just couldn't take much more. She moved her hand from the wound to a pocket in her skirt and remove a phone. The skirt and phone became smeared in blood from the hand handling them.

Dialling a number in the phone and waiting for it to connect, she held the wound she examined earlier whilst moving towards the dormitory's walls for support. The people around her stared on without intention to help – "why get involved in something as dangerous as this? Its only human nature, I suppose", the Teleporter thought to herself, rueing their cowardice. She fought on a day to day basis in JUDGEMENT to protect them, but they wouldn't even extend a finger to help her.

"Hello, 8th district JUDGEMENT branch, how ca-" the voice on the phone was cut off.

"Uiharu… listen… I need you to send ANTI-SKILL to my location - can you do that for me?" Miss Shirai responded as well as she could as her breathing deteriorated.

"Kuroko? What's wro-" she was cut off again by the now impatient child.

"Do it. No buts." The phone disconnected after this order was issued. She hadn't even waited for an "O.K!" from the operator, who seemed to be on fairly good terms with "Miss Shirai".

Satisfied with the job she had done, Kuroko sighed once again and stared into the sky the offender was looking into after she teleported both of them outside. She slowly closed her eyes with a smile on her face. She muttered "Mistress…" before becoming unresponsive.

While the battle outside had occurred, inside Touma was searching the guitar case that Mikoto's sister had brought into his room. Inside was an issue of armaments - magazines, loose rounds, an assortment of grenade types, plastic explosives and a lone combat knife. On every bit of deadly weaponry was the engraved number "3490". The same number was present on the guitar case as well.

What was her connection to this number?

After discovering this defining piece of information, he ran outside after grabbing the rifle from the ground and a new magazine from the case. Unconfidently, he attached the magazine and ran to the commotion to assumingly assist Kuroko. He arrived to find the Mikoto look-a-like pinned to the ground by steel needles and a hunched over Kuroko resting against the dorm building. In shock, he dropped the weapon that was left in his room. When it came in contact with the concrete, the magazine spewed into the pedestrian zone. The lone Teleporter became his main focus.

"Miss Shirai! Are you O.K? What happened!" were the generic cries coming from Touma. He titled her head back to see her drooling from the mouth. Frantically, Touma moved his hand to check her pulse. She was alive, but her pulse was slow.

"Someone call an ambulance!" he shouts viciously to a few people who had been watching the entire fiasco. Frightened by Touma's fierce reaction, they proceed by removing their phones and dialling emergency services.

Enraged he proceeded to the pinned teen, fist clenched. He stood above her making the best angry face he could. He took her goggles off her and threw them to the side. The second he touched the goggles, they lost their green, electric glow and the light faded away into impending darkness of the night. By now she had realized his appearance and greeted him smugly.

" "Yes?" questions MISAKA as she looks confused, yet entertained at the strange face you are making" she sarcastically inquired in monotone. This only made him even angrier.

"**WHAT** did **YOU** do! **WHAT** the hell is RADIO NOISE and **WHO **is "3490"! **ANSWER ME**!" He had grabbed her sweater and pulled it against the pins holding her down with a fist floating above her head as he asked his questions. She responds by spitting out more blood and returning his threats with a smile.

" "MISAKA has done nothing, she has failed to kill you." Responds MISAKA, ignoring your other questions in order to see your hilarious face for a prolonged space of time."

"I am **THIS** close to punching your head in, bitch. **NOW SPILL IT!**" he roared and cussed. His unprecedented rage received a response of slow, clockwork-like monotonous laughter.

" "Ha. Ha. Ha. Touma Kamijou, you are fun. MISAKA is "3490" - it is MISAKA's serial number. As for RADIO NOISE…" MISAKA shockingly reveals and then pauses, heightening the suspense of such an emotionally defining occasion for you." she taunted, smiling. Touma only responded by clenching his fist harder and gritting his pearly whites to breaking point.

How could she enjoy being so close to death, when Touma froze up in an instant when faced with it?

" "Ask Big Sis for the details" laughs MISAKA, attempting to finish on a cliff-hanger." she finished. Sadistic laughter was all that she could muster for a few moments following. It wasn't like the monotonous one she previously – this was the laugh of a distressed individual who had accepted death. Her psychotic howling received the pity from all those who heard it.

As she continued to moan the ANTI-SKILL wagons sounded their arrival with sirens and drowned out her banshee-like cackling. Heavily armed troops proceeded to pile out from the back of the vehicles. A flurry of commands came from all directions for Touma. He responds by standing upright, stepping backwards and raising his hands in the air. He couldn't comprehend their orders, but he felt safe that if he did this he would not be seen as a threat. He noticed he wasn't the target of the ANTI-SKILLs attention when he moved away from her, they continued to rant with weapons drawn and pointed to the girl.

As the ANTI-SKILL troops move to detain the howling sister, Touma rediscovers the goggles he had thrown away and retrieves them. After ensuring they are well hidden from the ANTI-SKILL agents under his clothes, he moves over to the still unconscious Kuroko.

"Is she going to be ok?" he asks one of the ANTI-SKILL soldiers attending to her. He could hear murmuring coming from Kuroko which only increased his concern.

"I think so. She seems to be having quite the dream, though. I don't know quite what to make of it." the green haired woman with obscenely large glasses responds. He moves in closer to hear just what Kuroko might be saying.

"Oh, Mistress… It's ok… This lowly peon shall assist you in removing those unbearable undergarments…" is something along the lines of what can be heard. It was obviously a very "personal" dream she was having and it would be rude to eavesdrop upon.

"Maybe Miss Shirai is closer to Mikoto than I thought…" Touma remarked to himself, filling his head full of images that aren't particularly unpleasant and wouldn't be out of place in a best-selling gentlemen's magazine. As he removes his mind from the gutter the ambulance siren whirls and the paramedics rush to the unconsciously dreaming Kuroko. Questioning where they are taking her, he finds out she will be admitted to 8th district hospital.

If the two of them are really as close as Kuroko dreams, he will undoubtedly meet Mikoto there and can ask her about whatever "RADIO NOISE" is.

As he smiles and congratulates himself about his ingenious detective work, a similar ominous feeling to one where he allowed the numbered assassin into his apartment reappears. He feels it's presence from atop of a building overlooking the current area. He looks in its direction and views a glint shine from the rooftop.

"LOOK OUT!" He instinctively shouts to the crowd, pointing in the direction of where the glint had come from. Mass panic amongst the civilians occurs as they flee the scene and leave the ANTI-SKILL troops hiding behind the large bullet proof shields they carry. All of the ANTI-SKILL are well protected - bar the ones transporting the renegade sister to the wagon.

**CRACK.**

As Touma looked on to watch the unshielded guards in horror he sees what happens the moment it occurs – a bullet flying straight through one side of Kuroko's opponent's head and clean out the other. Death was instantaneous.

"SNIPER! Capture him! **Dead or alive**!" shouts the commander of the ANTI-SKILLs in the area. Her commanding voice and incredibly tall stature build her a menacing presence. The ANTI-SKILLs around her bar the petrified ones holding the dead girl in their hands respond with a hearty "SIR, YES SIR." and depart the scene. The commander loads the two troopers in her wagon gently before tossing child's corpse violently in the back of the 4WD before approaching Touma. She obviously wasn't too happy of how the last few moments played out.

"Young man, how did you know that was going to happen? Do you know what happened here?" she questions, but the tone in which she says in conjunction with her physical presence makes it seem like she is interrogating him as a suspect.

"It just… I just had a bad feeling, I guess. She said she was part of RADIO NOISE before going insane. Does that mean anything to you?" He responds, mustering up the courage to respond to such an intimidating person.

"We've had reports from other districts about incidents such as these. Normally, however, it is the Psychic they find dead and the assailant missing. We almost had one of the culprits' under-raps until… Well you saw, I suppose?" he nodded to her question. She smiled and handed him a card. It seems some of her anger had dissolved now.

"It's my personal number. Call it if you feel those kind of feelings again or see one of those culprits again. Who knows who is listening on our official lines, so this is the safest way to catch one of them and protect you."

"Thanks… but shouldn't you be after that sniper as well… Miss …um..." he made a slight gesture as to receive the name of the person he was conversing with.

"Aiho Yomikawa. You could just read the card, you know? No, I'll be transporting the body to 8th district hospital. They should be able to find something out through an autopsy, I suppose." She responded, turning her attention to her vehicle and the two men inside hurrying her to leave. Touma smiled and waved the woman and men off. The crowd that had appeared earlier over the commotion had entirely disappeared now. The paramedics had taken Kuroko to the hospital, the ANTI-SKILL had gone on pursuit of the sniper and the civilian crowd had all but vanished at Touma's warning.

He was left to himself - to his thoughts of worthlessness once again.

'The whole reason Miss Shirai is in the hospital is because I was a coward… I couldn't fight something I know nothing about.' His melancholy monologue began as he took out the goggles he stole from "3490" out from underneath his shirt and stared into the broken L.E.D lights underneath the casing.

'A street fight? I'm more than game, I can handle myself… But against something that can kill me in moments…? I'm not sure my luck will hold me up on that…' he continued and spiralled into depression slowly before picking his mood up from those dark depths.

'But if I do that anymore, more people will get hurt. I'm a target of this insidious plan and I won't allow anymore to be hurt by it. I will fight – I will fight with my bare hands if it stops people around me getting hurt. If I don't know what I'm up against, I'll find out fighting!' He declared to no audience. His inner conflict seemingly resolved with a pact of self-righteousness and a new found determination.

The fight that occurred today was the wake-up call needed for Touma. He had been playing detective whilst people around him fought and almost died. Someone who he didn't even know protected him from death today and that someone even held him in contempt. If she could do that, then surely he could fight for himself and protect those around him.

After establishing a deep mental note of this newfound initiative, he recollected something "3490" had said earlier – he was a target for this mystery organisation. The girl knew where he lived, brought live munitions and almost killed him in the fading daylight. It would be bad if he stayed the night in the same place. Who knew if he'd make it through the night without a bullet being lodged in his cranium?

Touma reached for his phone and shifted through the contacts. He hurriedly arrived at "Motoharu" and paused for moments. Maybe, just maybe, he could give him somewhere to hide temporarily – Motoharu was his "bro" after all. Touma held his breathe and dialled the number. It rang for moments before an ear piercing greeting reached him

"Nahh! Kami! What is making you call so late! I was just'ta about ta' go to bed!" screamed the other end of the phone.

"Hello to you too, Motoharu. Listen, I'm in a bind at the moment and I need a place to stay…" he requested directly. Now was not a time to jump around the issue of the matter – death is all but a possibility if he stays in his room tonight.

"Oh, is that all? Yeah that's fine. Maika always has the spare room ready, on'account she goes to 'dat maid school" he responded, in a poor matter if speaking.

"Oh ok, I'll be over soon. Thanks man."

Hanging up the phone, Touma went inside his room to grab a spare set of clothes and to dump anything unneeded from his pockets. He began removing floating coins and the linen lining his pocket until he eventually reached the phone strap he stole and Aiho's card he had received earlier. Moments ticked by as he eyed both items intensively, pondering as to whether or not they would be necessary before concluding the affirmative and placing both of them into his pockets.

Prior to leaving, the goggles stolen from "3490" find their way into his fridge by Touma's doing. It was fairly spacious since he never ate much on a daily basis, nor had the money to. It would be the last place for an intruder to look too, unless they broke and entered on an empty stomach. Going through the motions of locking his room up and checking out with the nightshift dormitory administrators, he found himself on his way to the Tsuchimikado residence.

Academy City is very quiet at nights due to the tight curfews. If he was to be caught out here in the streets by an ANTI-SKILL, he'd probably get taken back to his house or locked up overnight. Gaol didn't sound too bad of a proposition at this point of time. However, Tsuchimikado's house was still the preferred alternative. This led him to the backstreets of Academy City, filled with the undesirable type of people.

On the outside, if you meet someone breaking curfew it would be safe to say that they're going to be bad news. Now, if you met someone breaking curfew in Academy City not much changes – except the arsenal of dangerous psychic powers and festering grudges. People go missing in these backstreets all the time due to the renegade psychics and SKILLOUT members. Yet this was something Touma was ready to face, he was to put his newfound determination to the test.

SKILLOUTs are generally associated with late teen early twenties that have become stuck with their Level and can't go any higher. Most people have a cap on how effective their psychic ability and it is these people who blindly accept that at a low Level that join these SKILLOUT gangs to search for somewhere to belong. They group up and overpower higher Level psychics for the pure enjoyment and satisfaction of beating the system. A number of troubled CHILD ERRORS also join their ranks.

However, people have been known to push through the limits given to an individual and obtain higher levels. The story schools over the city tell its students is if you work hard you can be a Level 5 one day like "No. 3". Because of this SKILLOUTs are often looked down on in society much in the same way a school or university dropout is on the outside.

"Level 5" is more or less an honorary title in Academy City. It means the scientists researching the Level Development Program have deemed your psychic strength to be one of extreme power. There is only 7 Level 5s in the City and they are ranked from 1 to 7 based on their power. However, none of this really appeals to a CHILD ERROR. All it does is remind them on what they are missing out on, so Touma didn't keep extensive tabs on the subject, such as names and ranks.

Pressing through the backstreets, he realised he was mostly being ignored by its unsightly inhabitants. He received little but a few surveillance glares by newer arrivals to the gangs. This continued for some time as he winded through the increasingly narrowing passageways, gripping the spare clothes he had taken with him. The turns became more frequent and even tighter until he collided with another going in the opposite direction to him. He felt himself get thrown to the ground by the collision and his clothes splattered in the passageway.

The person Touma had ran in to stood above, unfazed by the bodycheck. Rubbing the burning sensation on the back of his neck, he heard an announcement from the silence.

"Eh… What is this little piece of garbage here…" Crudely mumbled the boy he collided with. Touma inspected this incredibly rude person in front of him, to find out it was someone he had brushed into previously… under very poor and similar circumstances. The familiar face continued the analysis of his find. He wore the same clothes as he did yesterday and carried the same sullied face too. He perhaps was a creature of habit.

"A phone strap? The hell! What kind of pretty boy carries a phone strap, let alone a Frogg-o one!" mockingly chortled the figure. The increasingly annoying and memorable laugh resonated powerfully from him. Touma felt like they weren't even in the same plain of existence.

"Look bud, it's not mine. It belongs to a friend, now hand it back." Touma demanded. He stood his ground unlike his previous encounter with this charming fellow.

"Oh, it's not yours you say? Fat chance I believe that, shit-face! I'm gonna keep it now that you lied to me, you piece of garbage." He bellowed back, laughing once more. Touma began feeling agitated and clenched his first. Even though he had stolen it in the first place, he felt it was a necessary item in getting Mikoto to talk. Besides that, this was something he needed to prove to himself – he needed to stand up for himself before he could stand up for others.

Without any more words, Touma flew at the ghastly appearance opposing him. He launched his left fist to begin a "left-left-right" combo, which was greeted with a smug smile and a howling laugh by his opponent. Before he could connect his first jab, Touma felt his arm fly back towards him as he punched himself in the face. He didn't take any serious damage but force of the blow made him take a few paces backwards. It was like he had a reflective shield around him. "Just my luck…" was a barely audible remark in relation to the preceding action.

"Oh? You like hurting yourself, garbage? "Stop hitting yourself!" is what those little shits at school say, right! Come now, kidd-o! Speak up! **TELL ME**!" the bleached menace roared, intensifying his laughter to scarily high levels.

'_If I don't know what I'm up against, I'll find out fighting!' _Touma's previous declaration rang in his head. This was not a time to give up.

"I don't know what fancy powers you were blessed with, but if you're going to use them to push those weaker around, I'll just have to erase those illusions!"

"_BLESSED! _Don't make me laugh! You're as clueless as those scientists that gave me this – this power. The city is dark at the centre, scrub. There is a hole going straight to hell in the middle and I came out of their alive, so don't give me this hero **shit**. Count yourself lucky I haven't splattered that lovely grey matter of yours all over these walls, punk." Something in Touma's last comment stirred something within the ghast who claimed much the same thing Mikoto had about a dark part of the city. Following his speech he could feel the rumbles of the ground below. Something was coming from underneath him.

Touma took a leap backwards as part of the asphalt that created the pathway they were standing on rose into the air where he was standing before and crashed into one of the buildings above them. The ghostly figure seemingly commanded it with movements of his arm. Touma moved quickly to try another "1-1-2" combo on him before receiving a blast from an unknown source. Touma felt two collisions after blow – one the wall and the other the ground below it.

"I am **sick** of punks like you thinking they can take my title away. Only the strongest deserve to be No. 1 and who better to fill that role than **me**! Now, lets give you something to make you remember not to cross me again. I'm thinking you will be h_armless_ after this…"

'No. 1? Does that mean he is the city's strongest psychic…? I'm in a lot of trouble if he is this ruthless!' Touma quickly concluded as he raised his face from the asphalt to see the figure latch onto his right arm. The figure picked the bruised combatant from the ground by the arm he took hold of previously.

"Well, we can't let you miss the blood fireworks, can we? Oh yeah! My expression might be a delight to remember, too! Just make sure you tell me what it looks like! Everything goes funny when I finish little shits like you off, so I don't quite know myself!" laughed the boy. He seemed to be enjoying the prospect of holding someone's life in his hands.

He smiled in anticipation for moments as Touma stared into his eyes, not backing down. Nothing happened after those moments of waiting. The powerful psychic's face turned to an impossibly large smirk. Disturbing laughter proceeded.

"Oh! This is interesting! **VERY INTERESTING!** What's your power garbage!" he laughed, throwing Touma down the passageway, rolling most of the way. Touma righted himself fairly quickly to face his stationary opponent.

"I… Don't have a power… I'm a Level 0 that's going to beat you, No. 1!" the spiky haired boy forcibly declared. Flames burned in his eyes. He was to beat this punk not for the selfish reason that SKILLOUTs beat random Psychics, but to destroy whatever illusions plagued this kid's mind of being a higher power than everyone else.

"Then come, shit-head! Give me your ultimate move! Show me the ultimate move of a worthless piece of rubbish!" was the taunt that came from the other end of the passageway. His laughing pierced the darkness.

Rushing back towards him, a hard, straight right with as much strength in it as humanly possible was flung in the direction towards the laughing monstrosity. Touma closed his eyes as the punch came closer to his target, fearing the reaction that might occur. The opponent only stood and awaited his attack, grinning psychotically at the incoming fist.

**THUD**

The noise echoed through the small passageway to the streets outside. The sight of the incredibly cocky individual sprawled unconscious in the narrow passageway was the first sight Touma received after opening his eyes. He was dumbstruck – Did he let Touma hit him? Did he forget to reflect Touma's attack? Whatever the answer was, a smile developed on his face – he beat the supposed No. 1 easily. He celebrated his first victory over an unknown force and took the first step in his decree to protect himself and others from the troubles he was to face in the future.

Without thinking he moved to pick-up the strap that had flown out of the giggly big mouth's hand after Touma knocked him unconscious. After retrieving it and safely storing it and gathering his clothes, Touma looked back to the unresponsive boy and then resolved to help him somehow – he might die if he left him here.

He grabbed one arm and threw it over the other, making sure his opponent's bleeding nose didn't run onto his clothes. Touma then dragged the pale kid's limp body out of the backstreets and on to the main road, finally resting him on a bus stop bench. Examining the battle wounds, he found nothing serious – only minor scratches from the distance he had been thrown around like a doll could be seen. He took his phone out of his pocket along with the card Aiho gave him earlier and dialled the number printed on it.

"Hello, Yomikawa speaking." Was the answer from the other end.

"Miss Yomikawa? It's the boy from earlier today, Touma. Look, I'm in a bit of trouble. I'm in the bus shelter on… 23rd Philosophy Road, 8th district. Do you think you can come?"

"Yes! Right away, young man!"

The ease of which she agreed to help him made him feel light headed for moments. A simple phone call earlier could have saved him this trip, but that would have taken away his first victory. Either way he decided to still go to Motoharu's house, a friend is still better company than a cop. He took a pen out of the kids pocket and wrote on one of the magazine inside the bus shelter – "Sorry, I knocked this guy out. Please help him." After leaving his message, Touma continued to Motoharu's house on the main street – he was at most two blocks away from his house.

Touma had arrived at the Tsuchimikado residence after his rough journey through the city with a spare set of clothes and the bare necessities in a modern world remaining, phone strap included. He was welcomed by Motoharu who held the door open for him and silently acknowledged his injuries. Touma brushed the unwarranted attention from them and entered the house.

Touma felt safe here – until he was confronted by a small voice.

"Y-You!" squeaked the little girl. She seemed somewhat familiar. She was oddly dressed in a maid's outfit. It must be Motoharu's little sister he spoke of earlier he concluded.

"Uh, Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm your brother's friend, Tou-" he was rudely cut off mid-sentence by the girl.

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but you are the man who stole from the shop I work at today! How dare you try to steal from my home as well!" she protested in the politest way possible. She spoke with respect even to someone she had clear disdain for.

That's who she is. She was the girl from the café earlier – the one he thought would easily lose her job for his actions. He thought to say "just my luck", but that would probably not help in this situation. He was about to apologize before Motoharu spoke first.

"Nahh, Kami, I see you've met Maika. She is a maid-in-training so please assist her in becoming a good maid while you are here." Motoharu smiled, ignoring the duo's previous conversation. Maika turned to Motoharu with pleading eyes saying "But-But!" to which he replied with a smile and a "He's a good guy" thumbs up. The Tsuchimikado's spoke conversations in body language it seems. Perhaps it is because their grasp of basic language skills is dimensions apart.

Touma thanked Motoharu's generosity and was waved off as Motoharu returned to his room hastily. He was obviously heavily involved with something before Touma's interruption. Maika proceeded to direct him to his sleeping quarters. Lucky she did – he would otherwise be lost in such a confusingly designed house. With sleeping preparations already completed, Touma took to the bed with the speed of an insomniac. Slowly, painfully, he shuffled his feet towards the bed as Maika looked on. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep, he just felt uncomfortable sleeping in such a pristinely kept room in his dirtied state.

"Come now. I too want to go to bed. You can have a bath tomorrow, or do you want to cause me more trouble today?" she questioned from the door, sarcastically to which there was no response. These were the last words Touma heard before relaxing on the bed and adjusting the covers over his bruised limbs and allowing his consciousness to slip into a world unknown.

Motoharu was still awake in his room reading what one would assume to be homework he received from school the day earlier. The room was quiet and the dim, flickering light created an eerie atmosphere. This well-built atmosphere for study was soon interrupted by the piercingly bright light of Maika opening the door.

"He's asleep" She whispered under her breathe, as if trying to hide her words from someone who would be eavesdropping.

"Good. That boy has had a heck of a day from what I've been told."

"Bro?"

"Yeah, Maika?"

"Umm… Who, exactly told you?" she shyly asked, shifting her feet in an incredibly cute fashion. Motoharu responded with a "not again" facial expression.

"Maika, we've been through this – I do things to keep you safe. I communicate with dangerous people. These people have eyes and ears throughout the city. That's how I find out and I'll tell you no more." He responded seriously. His poor colloquial speech patterns had disappeared whilst chastising Maika. The girl nodded. Disappointed, she lowered her head.

"Goodnight, big bro." she whispered sadly.

Motoharu smiled and watched her close the door. As the door was closing and the piercing light faded, so did his smile. He turned his attention back to the paper. There had been no pencil impressions made on it and all that was written on the paper was a date and time.

"**3:15 pm, August 25****th****"**

"A Spatial Rescue"  
><strong>END<strong>


	4. Two Sides of a Coin

"Two Sides of a Coin"

**August 23****rd****, 2020**

In the crescent moonlight trickling its glow onto the city below, mischief is at hand. A woman of the age of her late 20's stands in the middle of a group of dark figures clinching on to her every word. She issues orders to those attending her speech as they run to their designated positions. As the numbers thin and the bodies surrounding her diminish the light of the sky above gives a glimpse of the shady characters.

The central woman, her overflowing brown hair and her noteworthy womanly attributes are distinguished against the sea of repetition surrounding her – the people she commands all look the same. She possesses a charming face and childish attire, 2 sizes too small, which only gives emphasis to those commendable assets.

The children surrounding her, bodies of mid-teens, eyes of warriors, carry on their person highly technical weapons and sport a matching set of goggles which glow a fluorescent green, piercing the darkness of the night. Each one more identical then the last – their eyes glazed and expressions numb.

The remaining children and commander begin their journey to an unknown destination in a structure that could only be described as a military patrol in a war-torn province. The emotionless eyes divulge every nook and cranny, whilst the isolated figure stands within a shield of bodies armed to the teeth with deadly weapons.

Under the same moonlight shines the bleached white hair of a lone boy, trawling the streets in a matter similar to a lion stalking its prey. He moves silently, hands in the pockets of his jeans scanning and listening for signs of life. The mostly black with white markings shirt he wears ruffles in light breeze that flows through the streets of an abandoned city – It was night after all. The darkness is the only company available in Academy City after nightfall.

It truly was the calm before the storm.

This calm was broken by a cry of multiple men behind the boy, he had been all but oblivious to their presence as they seemingly appeared from thin air. A small grin developed on the boy's face hearing the voices from behind him call out. They were SKILLOUTS - bad news, a vicious gang of thugs.

And just what he wanted.

"Hey, you! Who do think you are stepping on our turf!" was the angered cry from one of the men in a group of many. Some held weapons whilst others appeared to be psychics. The boy was clearly outnumbered and out-gunned.

"Your turf, you say? Looks like I'll be the one to inherit this territory then, after all you shitheads are going to disappear in a second." He replied turning and showing his sick smile. He giggled for moments before slamming his foot into the ground to have a few of the men confronting him caught by the concrete beneath them flying into the building above them. Moments after the men caught by the sudden action disappeared from sight - blood began to fall down from where they were sent. The other thugs looked on with horror at the child who's smile only grew bigger and bigger with the 'pita pata' of the blood colliding with the ground.

Two men of the group of about five remaining made a charge at the boy, clenching the steel pipes they had for weapons. Their audacious attack was soon halted by the slab of concrete removed from the ground previously colliding into one them, crushing him into the ground. The compacted remains of three men, squashed flat by the surface above them persisted to exist on top of the slab. They were beyond identification – as anything the size of a man is if it were to be reduced to the _breadth of typical 180-paged notebook._ The remaining disheartened combatant threw his weapon and arms in the air praying for mercy.

The reply from the boy was brutal.

A streetlight pole near the boy became the centre of attention for all those around as the child moved to it slowly. Within five second of touching it moved from a vertical position to a horizontal one and impaled the remaining man through the chest. The wound was big enough to stick both arms in. The child began to laugh at his actions until he noticed something amiss.

The three remaining members were nowhere to be seen after the brutal massacre of the five other men, though this did not mean they escaped the same fate. With incredible speed the bleached monster seemingly flew across the ground and scanned the area nearby to find a side street with cries for help coming from it.

"I've got you now!" he laughed menacingly, the sounds coming from him sound sickly, it was as if he was descending into insanity.

He raced down the side street and spotted the three men fleeing with increased haste. The area itself was fairly narrow, perhaps only a small car could fit through it. He stomped in front of the men who quivered in his presence. Two of them began to flee, though they were crushed by a huge block from the wall the kid's hand was placed on. It flew from one side and collided to the other and the bodies of the two men popped like a grape on the opposing wall to the boy.

The remaining man shook, his face was one of outright fear and he had every right to be scared. He was confronting a monster.

"Wh-Who are you!" he squeezed out of his mouth, though the rest of his body was in a state of paralysis. The kid laughed at his question before placing his hand on top of the man's head and bringing it towards his mouth. The man's ear was within an inch of the boy's mouth after this action.

"I'm… Accelerator." he whispered before howling in laughter. The gangster began to scream in response to his laugh rather than what he was told. The screamed didn't last long though and was interrupted by a 'splat' noise. The head of the man was unidentifiable, bar from the blood and brains splattered on the walls around where the boy stood laughing. His body lay at the chuckling monsters feet.

"Well, there's my midnight entertainment…" mumbled Accelerator - his mood had changed from close to insanity to one of melancholy. Perhaps he was regretting the actions he partook in, maybe he was lamenting that the occasion was over.

Or perhaps he was inflicted with bi-polar disorder.

Regardless of the reason, he popped his hands back into his pockets and sulked out of the side street before feeling a slight thud. He had collided with someone though his body did not move - it was almost like he reflected the whole of the collision onto the other person.

The other person was a spiky haired boy who sat rubbing the tender zone on his rump which he fell on. His concern for himself was short lived as any such thoughts were interrupted by the other presence in the collision.

"Oh? You want an encore? Well, who am I to deny a scab their last request?" boomed a demonic voice from Accelerator. He slowly geared back into his ludicrous behaviour.

They say the world's fastest man can do 100 metres under ten seconds. This boy would have gave that man a _run_ for his money during the first 50 metres of the sprint that occurred in response to the remark spewed from Accelerator's mouth. The cowardly boy moved so quickly that Accelerator was unable to distinguish where he had fled to, perhaps into 7th district as its entrance was only two blocks away from where he was currently.

Thoughts to pursue the boy filtered through Accelerator's mind though were ultimately turned down after considering how far he might have to chase for what little satisfaction he would gain. His personality took another dip into something similar to depression as he wandered out of the side-street and back to the main street of 8th district, leaving the horrific deed as it was.

This dip into a black hole of depression would persist for a good time to come as he continued through the now, once again, quiet streets of Academy City. ANTI-SKILL sirens can be heard off in the distance, though this was no concern to Accelerator – if caught, he could easily escape or kill his captives. He had no home to go to and detention seemed like a free ticket to hell for the unlucky cell mate. There was nothing he feared.

Accelerators lack of fear was not unfounded - he was declared the strongest psychic in the entirety of Academy City. 182 districts, 2 million psychics and he was the **strongest** of them all. The gap between him and the others seemed infinite, like the size of an ant to the universe.

He possessed a unique ability, "VECTOR CHANGE". In essence, he had the ability to calculate the speed of the wind, resonance of a metal and breaking point of a solid and be able to manipulate it. He was in essence a living super computer. In addition, he subconsciously surrounded himself with what could be described as a reflective shield that bounced back anything that came into contact with him. His bleached hair and ghostly figure is a testimony to that as the UV rays that colour the skin and hair melanin are bounced off of him. In laymen's terms, he was like a mirror for any form of force in the universe.

Accelerator quickly stemmed into boredom as the moon began to hide behind the large buildings in the area he was currently present in. As the darkness began to engulf the entirety of his surroundings, he keenly heard the shuffling of shoes on asphalt. There were many sets of shoes, sneakers or school shoes with a distinct 'tap' of one set of heels within it all. He stopped to try to pin-point the location of the scuffling until they all but stopped instantly. The silence once again took over until the sound of a high powered rifle rang throughout the streets below.

Atop of a largely abandoned building adjacent to the street Accelerator was on was a young girl aiming down the barrel of a military grade sniper rifle. She wore a high quality school uniform with the badge of "Tokiwadai All Girls" and distinct electric green goggles. With her gloved hand on the trigger of the beastly weapon she jerked the index finger back and the booming noise of the rifle sounded with the exit of the bullet from the barrel. She waited, starring into the scope of the weapon anticipated for the target, Accelerator to fall. It was not long until she confirmed the targets status, but it was knowledge only to her.

The bullet reflected from the boy and flew back to its origin. The girl had no idea of the bullet returning to her position. It lodged itself into the left eye, the eye closed as she looked into the scope and penetrated her brain. 50. caliber rifle shells are designed to "implode" in a sense to cause maximum destruction on impact instead of only a flesh wound. Suffix to say, the girls eye socket provided the perfect shortcut into her brain where the bullet "imploded", impregnated and destroyed the brain matter inside. Death was instantaneous.

Accelerator, oblivious to the attempt on his life until the moment to bullet had reflected from him now understood the gravity of what was at hand. In the very least, the people grouped up ahead of him were professionals who knew what they were doing. A military convey, perhaps?

Accelerator licked his lips at this prospect.

Racing ahead to where the origins of the footsteps he heard earlier was, with increasing anticipation of a worthy fight, he encountered a large group of teenage girls armed with rifles. They all turned their weapons to him at the realisation of his presence as he awaited them to make their move.

The cocking of the rifles one after another sounded in the street until a call of "stand down" came from behind the line of girls. Though the glow of their goggles gave some light in the darkness, the shadow that light caused covered their faces. Although, it was easy to distinguish that they all wore the same uniform.

A few girls in the middle parted to allow a darker, larger shadow proceed to the front. As the figure began to proceed forward, the girls began to speak in relay to Accelerator.

""MISAKA assumes you are the great "Accelerator"?""

""MISAKA would say it was a pleasure, but you killed our only "END TRANSMISSION" attached to us.""

""Things might get a little bit… sticky because of that." Concludes MISAKA attempting to scare you as she finishes the desired comment floating in the network and then waits your response to MISAKA talking in relay."

"What the… Here I was hoping you brats might give me a challenge, but you turned out to just be a bunch of nut jobs. Un-fuckin'-believable." He sighed and cursed with arrogance to the girls speaking in relay. By the time he finished the larger shadow had moved to the front and stood before him. She was very close to him considering that she knew who he was.

She held no weapons unlike the other girls and what could be seen of her face in the darkness was incredibly childlike despite her otherwise adult appearance.

"Who the hell do you think you are standing up to me, Number One? I should kill you right now, bitch."

""LAST ORDER" answers-answers MISAKA to the bad mannered boy cursing-cursing in the presence of a lady."

"Two Sides of a Coin"

**End**


	5. A Monster Incarnate

"A Monster Incarnate"

**August 24, 2020**

LAST ORDER changed her stance to a more relaxed one, shifting one arm to rest on her hip whilst the other remained idle by her side. She flung her hair behind her shoulders and began a seemingly endless volley of words.

" "MISAKA is glad to finally meet you." Says-says MISAKA as she corrects-corrects her choice of clothing that might be a little too invocative for a teenage boy such as you. "MISAKA also remembers that she forgot to shower before leaving. Did all MISAKAs bathe correctly before leaving tonight? How about you Accelerator?" questions-questions MISAKA as she attempts to create idle chit-chat with Accelerator to makehim feel more comfortable in MISAKA's presence. "Misaka thinks…" " she rambled with no actual content in her words.

Accelerator tilted his head slowly. His puzzled expression linked to the thoughts of what exactly made this woman think she was so important to rant in his presence, to act so friendly towards him. Breathing in his presence alone is pushing the envelope. Gradually, his patience was running thin.

"Ahhh! I don't care, bitch! You keep going on and on about **nothing**! I'll give you one chance before I kill you – Tell me what are you doing, and why you are doing it." He barked, breaking his stunned silence and interrupting her pointless conversation. She stopped and stared him expectantly – perhaps she expected him to react in such a way.

""MISAKA was told you would be like this, but opted to try a more peaceful solution to this problem" announces-announces MISAKA as she loses hope in a conclusion not filled with blood." At the end of the demoralised words spurted by LAST ORDER she dissolved into the sea of green that was the girls behind her. As she disappeared behind them, Accelerator lost track of her. The light from the head mounted displays of the girls only allowed vision of what as in front of them, the space between them and Accelerator.

"Where the hell do you think you're going! Who do you think I am, bitch!" yelled Accelerator viciously, his intent mainly sourced from the damage his pride had taken by the woman standing up to him – it was a first someone has done that and lived.

And one loss can lead to another, then another and so on. It was in his best interests to nip this in the bud now.

As Accelerator moved to pursue the woman, the girls in position apposing him took a defensive stance and the clatter of the rifles they held discretely filled the airwaves of the street they were in. He would have to dispose of the people blocking his path to be able to chase after her it seems.

This was something he was obliged to do.

"Well! I was going to let you sweet young things go, but it see-" Accelerator was cut off by the intense volume of the actions taken by his opponents.

A count; thirteen identical girls. All of them opened a volley of fire on Accelerator at the exact same time. The flash from the barrels was extraordinary – it would pierce the depths of a blind man to see light again momentarily. The sound as well would have deafened even the Valkyrie watching these combatants proceed. The senses of a lesser man would have been nulled by the shear exposure to the delicate organs corresponding to each sense.

But Accelerator was no lesser man – he was the strongest in the city.

With concentration of the potentially affected areas, he is able to reflect, or deny access of the extreme light and sound entering his sensory organs. However, that is not all that is reflected, bullets danced off him and back into the direction of the shooters.

Multiple riflemen received a blow from the reflected bullets. Some are more badly hit then others. Four out of thirteen of the gunners take a blow into vital organs – one receives a bullet lodged straight into the cranium through the electro-spectacles they wear on their foreheads, shards of glass shatter around her and impregnate the now dead tissue on her lower right arm and chest. Death was instantaneous. Though seemingly brutal, it was one of the more pleasant ways for the recently felled combatants to depart the battlefield.

Another was struck multiple times in the stomach repeatedly. The bullets struck her abdomen, almost perfectly, and found their way into the liver, stomach and intestinal tracks after passing through the solar plexus nerves. The intense trauma felt in such a short amount of time caused induced vomiting in the girl who first proceeded to expel food substances which slowly degenerated to blood of immense volume. Whilst that occurred, the intense pain from the severed nerves made every involuntary expulsion all the more _gut wrenching_. She died of blood loss, long after Accelerator had left to chase after the remaining threats - it was a long and painful death.

The other two took simpler, more "Hollywood" deaths – a bullet to the throat and heart. Death for both was not instant, but fairly mild compared to one of their comrades. The screams heard before their deaths however, were particularly unpleasant. It would tug at the heart strings of even the most evil man.

Accelerator was no man, however, but a monster incarnate.

After the initial burst the remaining undamaged girls stopped firing. Their placid expressions now showed one of shock as a few dropped their weapons and lowered their goggles whilst a few wounded ones fled the scene in an organised manner. Accelerator showed a smile at the girls confronting him with their electro-spectacles lowered – he counted 4 in his presence.

Raising their hands to eye level in symmetry, sparks began to generate between the space of the goggles and the tips of their fingers. The sparks broke the symmetry of their actions as they flew in all directions without control or restriction. Initially, the sparks were few and minute but they grew in number and ferocity as time passed. Accelerator waited for them to initiate, he held a certain satisfaction of allowing his enemies to throw all they had at him before crushing them. The same cannot be said for his game when he hunts, however.

When the electricity of the girls had built to fever pitch and the air itself felt electrified, they synchronised the release of a bolt at Accelerator. The several bolts converged mid-air and formed a larger, singular beam. As the intense force of energy approached Accelerator, he giggled and smirked then boomed into howling laughter as it bounced off and struck one of the psychics. The one struck was instantly electrocuted. A charred, seared body with burnt and frizzled hair fell to the ground. The body had an accelerated rigamortis state from the electricity removing the oxygen in her muscle tissue, thus fell in the same stance she took whilst being shocked. It was better for her to die that way, rather than having the melted goggles that were placed over her eyes melt into the sockets, blinding her with unimaginable pain.

As the sick smell of burning hair and melted plastic wafted through the desolated street, the remaining girls looked at each other in horror. They were obviously not as well informed of what their opponent was capable of as the elder woman was. In a different way to the earlier escape some of the girls took, the one they participated in now was less organised. It's about the difference between a "fall back" command and "retreat" order, with the retreat order entailing an underlying notion of "every man for himself".

His opponents have been downgraded to game.

Accelerator chased the fleeing girls relentlessly. He caught up to one fairly quickly and ended her troubles by making her body become part of scenery, thrown headfirst into a building with little features bar the newly implemented limp legs and fluttering skirt. Moving on from her he saw the shadows of the others fleeing into a nearby park. A growing smile and laughter from Accelerator pierced the darkness of the city as he pursued them into the park. A repetitive 'thwomp' noise was heard as it got louder and louder the closer he moved to the park.

Accelerator possessed little physical prowess - however with the calculations of his VECTOR CHANGE, he can turn that little strength into a waterfall of force. This allows him turn a push of two metres into a shunt of one-hundred. This is the method behind his absurd abuse to the game he hunted.

The park itself was filled with trees on the outside, but in the middle of the oval was a large, open area with no notable landmarks, normally. The trees created a veil that blocked people seeing inside the park from the road. The park was about five-hundred metres square and about four-hundred metres of it was plain grass, grass that would be used for a first grade sports oval.

In the middle of the park was a black image with lights coming from inside. He couldn't see it in much detail, the image was about the size of his thumb, but it was incredibly obvious in a background of nothing. The girls fleeing were moving towards source of the loud noise, they were about two-hundred metres away from it. Accelerator was in pursuit.

Whilst following, he noticed one of the girls had disappeared. Two shadows still appeared to be running to the large shadow in the middle of the park, but one had vanished. He thought about searching for the missing one until it became apparent where she had vanished to.

A small distance in front of Accelerator laid the body of one of the girls, outstretched. She was crawling away slowly without noticing his presence. Accelerator sounded his arrival with a laugh and mocking words.

"Well, scumbag, you guys sure do play a great game of Tag! I might lose count of how many times I have tagged you, however, since you all look the same! How about I kill you if I catch you? I'll never have to second guess myself then!" he sinisterly cackled. He slammed a foot into the back of the girl on the ground and she writhed in pain. A few bits of equipment rolled out of her vest and to the other foot Accelerator had placed on the grass. He examined the tools – A grenade, tear gas, plastic explosive, but one piece stood out the most - a "flashbang", a stun grenade used to destroy the sight and sound senses of a person as well as cause extreme pain. They are mainly used to paralyse a room of hostiles and are only used by special units of all armed forces. They are, however, not lethal.

"Well this is a new piece of shit, never seen one before! I wonder what it does!" he boomed as he picked it up off the ground. It was a small canister with the label "FB-228" and a small pin at the top. There were minute holes all over the canister, you couldn't see them but you could feel there existence.

He placed his knee on top of the girl's neck and planted her face into the ground. She groaned as her noes slammed into the dirt and blood began to run from it.

"Oh no, don't tell me. That'll ruin the surprise! How about we do an experiment instead?"

By the child's hair, Accelerator pulled her head as far as her body allowed and pulled the pin on the flashbang. He placed it in front of her eyes, and waited for moments for nothing to happen. He looked inquisitively at it, the seemingly dysfunctional tool. After examining it, he became infuriated and slammed the girls face into the flashbang then into the ground. A 'bang' of the flashbang going off went off as he slammed her head into it. The girl took the entire force of the explosion, Accelerator receive none of it.

A flashbang can disable a medium sized room of people for 2 minutes if it is thrown near the door and the people inside are at the farthest point possible from it. Lord knows how bad the effects are if it was placed directly into the sensory organs.

From the girl's perspective, her vision and hearing became useless. Her hearing screeched like static and her eyes were blinded by the white lights of heaven. Her eyes watered and head ached, it felt like it was going to burst, that she would die from it. In this position, she was completely disorientated, she had no idea what was happening and only felt the pressure of where Accelerator's knee was relieved, but the pressure replaced back onto her back.

The girl had be unknowingly screaming, she was unable to hear herself. Accelerator relished in her cries until he noticed the remaining girls had gotten very close to the source of the 'thwomp' noise. He decided to finish the girl underneath his feet off by pushing his foot through the girl's spine and severing her spleen. She died with the force of a car crash travelling at the speed of sound.

By the time he had removed his foot from the clone's carcass the shadow of the fleeing girls moulded with the large one. The distance he was from it allowed him to designate some features, he could see a tail wing and a large body of a vehicle. By process of elimination, he determined it to be a helicopter. Closer inspection would reveal it was a UH-60 Black Hawk, which was odd as the technology used to build it was old and out-dated in Academy City.

As Accelerator got closer to the presumed helicopter, it started to take off. He hastened to try to board it, but the door that had just allowed the two escaped girls in closed and the helicopter was now in rapid ascent. Accelerator mustered his strength and with a little help from his ability, sky rocketed to the Helicopter. He would have sprung eigthy metres into the air.

When he came close enough to the helicopter he reached for the landing rails underneath the helicopter and latched onto them. One by one, his hands wrenched closer and closer to the door of the helicopter which was closed and locked, all the while the helicopter was increasing in altitude. Placing his hand on the bolts of the door, he ripped it off and pulled himself inside.

Inside, while Accelerator gripped and slowly pulled himself to the door LAST ORDER was inside, sitting calmly. With the thuds of him getting closer and closer, the recently escaped girls trembled with fear. The five others with bullet wounds as well look at LAST ORDER with concern.

""What do we do" ask MISAKA politely for orders, trying not to let her cowardice show in the presence of LAST ORDER" questions one of the wounded girls who still had hold of her gun. The two that had escaped discarded their guns in order to attack Accelerator and lost most of their tools in the escape. The pilot, also a clone, looked back to hear the conversation at hand.

""MISAKA serial-codes 10032 and 10033 have nothing of value whilst…"" another one of the injured girls remarked pointing to the two girls huddled together, tears running down their faces, before being cut off by LAST ORDER.

""When the Target enters the plane, hit him with stun grenades. All MISAKAs equip electro-magnification-spectacles." orders-orders MISAKA with hidden knowledge only known-known to MISAKA." She ordered strongly, yet remained calm. She obviously had control of the situation at hand.

When Accelerator looked up after entering the helicopter he saw LAST ORDER smiling and waving to him. It was a "goodbye" wave in comparison to a "welcome" one. Around her were the remaining clones all wearing their goggles and holding flashbangs. Before he could react, they threw down the grenades at Accelerators feet. LAST ORDER averted her eyes and Accelerator smirked at their actions.

However, his body reacted differently to what he expected.

Accelerator was momentarily blinded by the flashbangs and suddenly felt a force on his chest impact with him - a footprint analysis would determine it to be a heel. This impossibility confused the already disorientated "Number 1". How could he – Academy City's Number 1 be touched by another person?

He fell out of the Helicopter which flew on into an unknown section of Academy City as Accelerator fell, unbeknownst to predicament he was in – seven-hundred metres in the air.


	6. A Meeting of Association

"A Meeting of Associations"

**August 24, 2020**

As Accelerator fell, the sensation of weightlessness overcame his body. He had been falling for at least 10 seconds, though he was unable to calculate it. The disorientation of the flashbangs he was hit with previously still had control over his mind, as it blurred with obscurity. Accelerator was unable to calculate anything. His ability, VECTOR CHANGE, was all but useless.

A fall from this height would kill him, regardless of his natural barrier. A reflection of the force that is the result of contact with the ground would be forced into the soil Accelerator would come in contact with. The entire landscape in the surrounding area would be shifted like an earth tidal wave. However, that isn't the factor that would kill him, but would be the one that killed the civilians around ground zero.

The fall from the helicopter was 700 metres from the ground. A human body reaches terminal velocity at 500 metres, whereupon it is travelling approximately 130 kilometres a second. This force is developed by Accelerator's body, therefore there is nowhere it can be reflected, bar into himself. Contact the ground will only release the force his body develops into him, practically mulching his organs, bones and tissues into a thin, pink paste, despite his ghoulish white appearance.

The entire free-fall lasts about fourteen seconds before Accelerator blacks out. He didn't regain the ability to gauge the forces around him. He fell, to limited knowledge of his circumstances – blinded, deaf and weightless. A comment spoken in the way a mute would was worded out before losing consciousness –

"But I'm Accelerator… Number… "

Darkness took hold of the creature of the night as the city itself rose with the sun. A new day was upon Academy City. A new day for the progress of humanity was at its footsteps, and Accelerator was at the backdoor of hell, kicking and screaming. He was alive. Barely.

Time past until the sun shone almost directly above the inhabitants below before Accelerator regained movement and thought. His vision was clear like a seer's ball and hearing was as acute as a bat. He was himself again, though something troubled him – his surroundings were oddly homely, he was inside someone else's home. Accelerator felt like a fish out of water, having no home to call of his own, let alone one of this size and prestige.

Taking in his surroundings with a pinch of salt, he rose from the makeshift bed that was, in actuality, a lounge to find his neck acting oddly. It was very stiff and hard to manoeuvre. However, before he could question the cause of this oddity a voice spoke out from another room and the rustling of plates and disses could be heard along with it. It sounded as if it two people were in there.

"Nyahh, mysterious young stranger! You've awoken from your slumber, of sweet prince o' mine!" rang out the voice of a poorly educated individual from within the other room, which was presumably the kitchen. Muffled whispers occurred after it and young girl, around thirteen, dressed in a maid's outfit shuffled out of the kitchen with a tray of various edible commodities atop of it. She placed it on the coffee table in front of Accelerator, poured a glass of water and broke a bread roll into bite size pieces. Accelerator looked in puzzlement over her actions.

After performing these medial tasks, the girl peeked at the clock on the wall behind Accelerator. She seemed surprised by the time and raced off to her room screaming at the person in the kitchen, knowing full well Accelerator would overhear.

"Bro! I'm going to be late to my first day at my new job because of you! It's almost 11:30! He is your **problem** now!" were the grumbled pleasantries of the girl in the distant room and by the sounds of it struggling with her clothes, though that could not excuse the harsh tone she talked about Accelerator with. She was lucky to still be breathing.

In the mad rush she was in, she must have stumbled putting her clothes on as loud thuds came from the room she entered. After a few moments later the same girl raced out of the door with a work uniform on, slamming the door behind her, only to re-opened moments later to spew more words filled with hatred at the person in the kitchen.

"And if I come home to see that fiery haired hussy again… **You. Are. Dead.**"

A small silence broke after she slammed the door again and she wasn't heard of again. Accelerator still hadn't left his stunned position, partially because he was so confused and partially because it hurt too much to do so. He reached for the water within an arm's reach from him on the coffee table in an attempt to quench his thirst, though ignored the bread pieces. As he drank, the presence from the kitchen made his way to Accelerator, making idle chitchat.

"Nyahh, that girl will never become a maid if she keeps that forked tongue o' hers hidden beneath a pleasant exterior… So, big fella'… How'ya hanging after last night? I heard you had a bit of a rough time with a certain mysterious woman, ehh?" The boy prodded, sitting on the arm of the lounge Accelerator had been laying on. He looked away from him as he spoke, his gaze hidden by the deeply shaded specs he wore, so deeply coloured it seemed as if they hid the secrets of the Vatican. The chain around his neck glistened into Accelerators eye's, blinding him for moments.

Those moments of sightlessness came a severe reminder to what occurred the night previous, all his partial, fractured memories of the events that took place were highlighted like a university student studying for finals. Accelerator retained a stoned cold response to the boy's questions, ignoring him and making disapproving noises with his tongue - "Tchh"

"Now listen here, boyo'. That's no way to act to the person who saved your life! You should at least say "Thank you!" or "Cheers, mate!"" He commented, placing his arm on Accelerator's shoulder and bumping his neck – or he would have if it was exposed and not in a brace. Accelerator noticed the neck brace after the boy touched it and all the pieces came together – he must have injured his neck after being blinded and deafened by LAST ORDER and her lackeys.

"You seem to know the details – so spill it. Why did you save m- no scratch that. How did you save me? I can't remember much after being hit by a grenade in that woman's helicopter…" Accelerator dismally questioned, though clinging to some sort of superiority he thought he had over this boy. The lad nodded and was about to begin his explanation before the doorbell rang and a woman's cry came from the door. She sounded as though she was one who thought she was queen of the world – a female Accelerator personality-wise.

"Motoharu! Open the door you lazy bastard! I did your dirty snooping now _hurry up_… I'm _tired_…" the voice rashly roared then slowly morphed into a pitiful whine. Motoharu moved from his position on the lounge to the door, answering the disembodied voice's cry for passage.

At the opposite side of the door was a teenage girl with bright red hair in short pigtails dressed in an oversized leather jacket. At first, the oversized jacket seemed to be the most out-of-place piece of clothing on the thinly statured girl, since she didn't place her arms through the sleeves. This left the sleeves dangling near the zipper and teeth of the jacket. However, after the girl approached closer to Accelerator, conversing with Motoharu in casual small talk of no importance, he noticed what was wrapped around her underneath the jacket –freshly bound bandages, stretching from her midriff to her chest. It must have been one terrible wound to cause something like that.

"So, are you going to be an ingrate all your life or are you going to thank your guardian angel, Awaki Musujime, ace thief, spy and professional Teleporter?" She quizzed, questioning Accelerator in such a way that she introduced herself and instantly made him the indebted party in their relationship. A truly cunning and quick witted individual.

"I'm sorry, who are you? And why should I give a damn, you egotistical **brat**?" he responded coldly after moments of thought, staring straight into her eyes to relish in her shocked reaction.

She did not disappoint.

"Of all the nerve! You didn't tell me this new guy would be a stubborn **man-child**, Motoharu! He won't even thank me for his spared life, by the hands of the brave and cunning Awaki! Well… I can _easily_ that it back, if you don't mind…" she flew into shock, followed by rage then into a devilish glee. She surely was a temperamental piece of work.

"Well, I can think of a better word to describe you using the first three letters of "cunning" followed by the letter after "s". How about you spell it out for me?" He responded, joking, taunting, abusing and teasing all in one strike. He was more than quite the match for this girl.

Awaki responded to his comment by striking him in the face with a full blown punch. She was about to continue a vicious beating on the crippled Accelerator until Motoharu intervened. Accelerator gritted his teeth at the loss of pride he just took along with the other side effect of the strike-

VECTOR CHANGE didn't redirect the punch.

Motoharu could see the tension between the two was reaching dangerous levels, so stepped in to explain the situation as he was to do before Awaki arrived. He retrieved an ice pack and applied it to Accelerator's swollen jaw before starting. Awaki took a seat in an armchair on the opposite side of the room, sulking and ignoring the ghast in the room.

"Now, let's all calm down. We're all on the same team here… Accelerator, isn't it? This is Awaki Musujime – she is the one that saved you from your fall, the one you took after losing to LAST ORDER, correct?" he started, his terrible slang disappearing the moment he started being serious.

"What do you know?" Accelerator snapped back, slightly surprised to the depth of his knowledge. "I didn't lose, but you seem to know more than me about this." Awaki broke out in laughter after his comment. A glare struck and stunned her afterwards.

"A-Ah, w-well, I simply teleported you back up a few metres and reset your bodies terminal velocity, but there was nothing stoping your landing on your head though. Who knew you were such a bone head!" Awaki interrupted shyly then burst into laughter. Perhaps she was no very good at taking a compliment, even from herself. She was, however, perfectly fine with taking the micky out of someone. Motoharu's shades pierced her very soul and she was put back into place, silence.

"Anyway, I have very good sources of information. Regardless of whether you lost or not, that woman you fought is dangerous and a threat to the city. The higher-ups can ignore your little murderous rampages of SKILL-OUTS and low levelled psychics, but this woman is killing strong, dependable psychics. LEVEL 4's aren't out of her league…"

"So? Why don't they round up ANTI-SKILL or something to get rid of them, that bitch isn't my problem anymore. I ran into her by chance."

"ANTI-SKILL's blood has also been spilt by her hands. The higher ups have just about had it… They are preparing to wipe her and the group behind her off the map."

Accelerator glanced at him, "So what" and "I'm involved, how, exactly?" was written all over his face. Motoharu took note and mentally skimped over his information to get to where Accelerator was involved.

"Well, that's where you come in. We are GROUP. Both Awaki and I have various… possessions of ours temporarily removed from us until we destroy this woman and her organisation."

"You're being blackmailed to do this, huh? Well those guys won't have anything on me - I don't have any worldly shit I'd care if you took from me. So if this is why you guys are keeping me here, I'm off." Accelerator mumbled in pity over the conditions the two teens were facing.

"Don't you have friends, or a relative you care about? Every man at least has a dog they love!" Awaki yelled in desperation, obviously offended. He probably struck a nerve with the now quite Motoharu as well, who was staring at a family picture with Maika and himself smiling as kids. Accelerator ignored her plea and slowly got up to leave the house before a voice called him from behind.

"Every man has a weakness. Whether it is family, friends, or themselves… There is something we, as humans, find in the world that makes us get up each day. When you find yours, call this." Motoharu spoke, poetically and scribbling a number down on a piece of paper before rising from his seat and placing it in Accelerators hand. Not once did he make eye contact, yet the quivering of his eyebrows lead to one excuse as to why. He was perhaps hurt a little bit more than first realised by Accelerator's comment.

The ghostly boy left the building after snatching the paper and placing it in his pocket. He would go to spend the rest of the day in a waiting room at 8th district's hospital. After his departure, Motoharu questioned Awaki with a formal question, perhaps business related.

"Did you end up finding the _other_ one we were supposed to get?" he inquired, wiping his finger underneath his glasses. Her head fell low in shame upon hearing the question.

"He... isn't a priority anymore… It seems he wasn't up to our standards to taking on these guys…" she responded informally, in contrary to the rest of the conversation that was to play out.

"Kill count before he died?"

"Around 30, more than what that **bastard** did"

"What time did he die?"

"When we were out rescuing that **dick"**

"He only killed six, right? We could have saved Etzali instead of him - perhaps he'd be a friendlier, more sensitive bloke…"

"We don't even know if he'll join!"

"He will. Your weakness is your friends, mine is my sister. His…? His is his pride. He'll be back, before the days end."

The 8th district hospital is always incredibly busy, but today was perhaps it's busiest. Accelerator had been in the waiting room to have a doctor check his neck for four hours, when it would normally take half an hour to two hours. The sun was just about to set on the day as Accelerator was called upon to enter the physician's room.

"Oh! Why hello there, Accelerator! What brings us to meet again this time?" announced the doctor after spinning around from his desk to meet his patient. His face was unmistakably deformed.

"Oh, it's you Froctor." He unenthusiastically mussed, pointing to the cast on his neck. "Froctor" was perhaps the quack's nickname, since his deformed face looked much like a frog.

"Only a wee bit of pain, yes? Well these here will do just the trick" the doctor smiled and threw a capsule of medication at Accelerator, which reflected from him onto the professional's desk. Accelerator was more than pleased with this visit – VECTOR CHANGE's reflective shield was back and he would be able to remove this pain he had without going through potentially invasive questioning from a doctor he was not so familiar with.

"I wasn't able to use my ability until now, since last night. I got hit by an explosive I've never seen before… What do you reckon it was" Accelerator asked respectfully. The fact that he asked with respect showed how well respected and long the history between these two had been.

"SKILLOUTS don't have access to very new weapons, so I doubt it was anything in them…" Accelerator interrupted him to clarify a point.

"They weren't SKILLOUTS, but a group of well-armed clones. I'd never seen them before."

"I've heard about this group. A lot of my patients have been attacked by them - all of them are high levelled psychics as well. It would be safe to say that they have some sort of counter for your ability too… But to think that _you_ weren't able to reflect something… What would Amata say to you if he heard that?" Accelerator turned his nose to the doctor at the mention of that man's name.

" "You sack of worthless garbage! I should have killed you the day I picked you out of that orphanage!" something along those lines, I guess."

The G.P's pager then rang out after Accelerator's depressing reminiscences, luckily for the doctor who had no response to his comment. The doctor flew out of the room after reading what the message's contents were without a word and Accelerator followed closely behind.

A critical patient had just entered the ward. It was a small teenage girl with curly pink hair. She was hooked up to multiple fluids and machines – blood bag, sodium bag, a breathing apparatus and a small amount of green liquid, mostly likely morphine. This girl was badly beat up, the bed sheet she was covered with was covered in blood around her waist. The "Froctor" immediately questioned the ambulance officers on the girl's situation before taking her into his operation room hastily.

"She's a goner, poor thing." One of the onlooking nurses whispered to another.

"Who do you think that doctor is? He is the HEAVEN CANCELLER." The other replied. Accelerator scoffed at the Hollywood drama that was unfolding in front of him and left into the night of Academy City once more. He didn't even thank the "Froctor" for his advice and assistance.

Prowling the streets, with the pain in his neck removed and cast disposed of, Accelerator continued where he left off last night. After a while he found himself recognizing the surrounding area – it was the suburb Motoharu lived in.

With no activity on the main streets, Accelerator proceeded into the alleyways of multiple apartment complexes. Within moments of turning the third or fourth corner, he felt the reflection of another body collide with him and noticed a small object fall at his feet. He picked it up and mocked the boy for having it in his possession.

Provoking the young boy into attacking him, Accelerator was finally ready to break the losing streak he was on. Both LAST ORDER and Awaki made absolute fools out of him, but this young, cowardly boy was an easy target. He was going to be "Number 1" in his own mind again soon.

A back and forth of words occurred with Accelerator making prodding attacks to force him into fighting. Eventually, the boy came at him with full force. Accelerator grinned in anticipation and thought – 'Finally, time to start winning again!'

He didn't keep that thought for long.

The boy struck him hard in the face, knocking him out cold onto the ground below. It came so fast and was such a surprise that Accelerator had no knowledge of what occurred between that time and when he awoke in a spacious car with a dominating presence of a woman driving next to him. She glanced to him and acknowledged his presences.

"Well you've certainly changed, Touma. Since when did you bleach your hair and get so sickly?" She jested, laughing. Accelerator remained quiet, though his body language asked questions to which the woman answered.

"I'm Aiho Yomikawa. Head of the ANTI-SKILL in 8th district… and you are…?" she paused, waiting for his response.

"Accelerator…" he spoke, filled with shame. Accelerator had never lost before and now he had lost three times in a row. His pride had been taking a beating and he was finally showing it.

"Well, Accelerator, apparently you were knocked out by a boy named Touma Kamijou. I didn't take him to be such a punk to fight such a sickly kid as yourself… he was so well mannered when that incident with the assassin occurred." Accelerator wasn't listening to her words until "assassin" came up, which piqued his interest.

"Assassin? Was it a girl? Brown hair, school uniform?"

"Wow, how'd you know that? Yeah it was. The group she was connected to has been causing the higher ups all sorts of problems - they have no idea what to anymore… Everytime we capture one of them they are killed by a sniper that we can never find. They seem to disappear with the wind."

Just as she confirmed his suspicions, he remembered the conversation he had with Motoharu earlier, about taking down LAST ORDER. Rage filled his mind with the thought of her name - she was the one that took away his _gorified _status of "Number 1". Taking down that woman became the only thought in his mind, and he was willing to do anything to do it.

Asking Aiho if he could borrow her cell phone, which she allowed, he began rummaging through his pockets for the piece of paper he was given earlier with Motoharu's number. Unable to find it, he noticed a piece of paper with writing on it in the ash tray amongst a mountain of coins.

"Sorry, I knocked this guy out. Please help him." was displayed on one side, and the number on the other. He dialled it ravenously - the thoughts of revenge manipulated his actions, or how he went about them.

"Nyahhh, Motoharu here!" was the answer he was greeted with.

"Specs, its Accelerator. Look, you know a lot about this "LAST ORDER", right? Well I want to help you remove her… on one condition." He replied ferociously, he demanded complete dominance in the transaction.

"Oh, well let's hear it, bug eyes." Motoharu responded with malice, taking offense to the nickname he was called.

"I get to kill LAST ORDER singlehandedly." There was a pause after his demand was heard.

"We'll have to discuss it in person. Meet me tomor-" Accelerator interrupted before he could finish.

"No, tonight."

"Sorry, bud, but that is a conflict of interest right now. I'm expecting a source of information any moment now. Meet me at my home, 3:15 tomorrow. Any earlier and the deal is off." Motoharu organised before cutting the connection. Aiho, who was eavesdropping, offered a proposition to the disappointed boy.

"So how about you stay at mine then? Sounds like the plans you tried to make didn't work out to well."

Aside from the nod of affirmative, Accelerator ignored Aiho. Instead, he took a pen and wrote a time and date on the piece of paper with Motoharu's number on it:

"**3:15 pm, August 25****th****"**

"A Meeting of Associations"

**END**


	7. A Friend in Me

"A Friend in Me"

**August 25, 2020**

A piercing glare penetrated the eyelids of the long asleep Touma, so much so that he jumped out of bed to try and to try and stop it. He blindly stumbled towards the source of the glare, which he presumed to be the window and lunged towards it, in order to support himself from falling and to close the blinds.

However, the original location of such a childish endeavour was a lot more human than natural - a steal tray is the perfect item for redirecting light into unsuspecting eyes. Touma came in contact with something, defiantly. However, whether or not that something was the drywall or glass window, to which he expected, was another matter.

"Uwaaahhh! Bro, help! He's trying to molest me! You brought a paedophile into our house!" were the panicked, muffled screams of the maid-in-training, Maika. The tray trashed out of her hands and rolled away. She already had her uniform on and it was already ironed, not that you could tell anymore. Touma had wrapped his arms around her in his half-asleep state and crashed to the floor with her. His grip was one similar of a small girl protecting her favourite teddy bear from the monster in the closest.

Even though Touma in no way, shape or form was touching her inappropriately, the strength of which he had gripped her was like an ever tightening vice grip. Slowly, but surely, the vice grip will get to a point where the sheet metal starts to bend out of shape, and this was happening to Maika.

"Nahhh, Maika, looks like he has tooka shine to ya'! She'sa good girl, Touma, treat her well." Motoharu laughed and joked as he saw the scene that was occurring in the room. Maika's pleading eyes filled with hope soon became fiery daggers screaming "**You traitor!**"

As Touma's consciousness slowly returned to him as his uncomfortable cushion, Maika squirmed and struggled for freedom, he awoke to see her face in a tomato red fashion followed by a vicious head-butt.

The combination of the head-butt and embarrassment of what he had done in his drowsy state made him leap back several feet. Maika bounced up from the ground, catching her breathe and stormed over to Motoharu. He was still laughing.

"You… **bastard**..." she panted. She pushed him out of the way lethargically and pondered into her room then slammed the door. Maika would not show her presence outside of her room until Touma had left. She was obviously embarrassed enough to break her maid persona, though that persona seemed to vanish under any stress or negative influence. She still had ways to go before becoming a maid, so it seemed.

Today was a free day for most public schools which didn't run classes on Saturdays - however private schools still had mandatory lessons. It was one of the joys being in the public education system had and one that Touma and Motoharu thoroughly enjoyed.

"S-sorry about that! I didn't know what I was doing! Honest!" pleaded Touma to Motoharu, begging for forgiveness. Motoharu seemed unfazed by it.

"Nahhh, no worries, ey? Its good character buildin' for her, she took'dit well I reckon'." He poorly responded. Though he ignored her earlier pleas for assistance, there seemed to be a reason behind it rather than a simple masochistic pleasure. Touma still demanded that he apologize to her, which Motoharu denied flat and instead proposed an alternative action and lead him to the kitchen.

An entire European breakfast was set out one the benches of the kitchen. Motoharu moved his hand in a way to offer Touma to his fill of the numerous foods sprawled across the counter. German Schnitzel, French toast, Danish bagels, British Crumpets, tea and coffee, all of it was at Touma's fingertips. It truly was a foreign experience, having had only coffee and tea of the above mentioned items. Maika must have prepared it earlier and what better way of thanking her than eating a fair share?

After enjoying the incredible meal, Touma decided that it would be better for him to leave. He was receiving hurried motions from Motoharu, as if he had other business to attend to. Gathering his possessions, including the phone strap, he thanked Motoharu and Maika (though four feet of wall separated the two) for their hospitality and left to thank the one person he owed for allowing him to breathe the air of this fine day – Kuroko Shirai.

However, 8th district hospital was a fair distance from Motoharu's home, most certainly not in walking distance. Recalling the bust shelter he left the ghastly boy last night for Aiho to pick up, he set about to its destination.

There was not a soul in site at the shelter though the constant 'tinking' of the TREE DIAGRAM weather prediction device in the shelter shattered the frozen atmosphere. It must be automatically turned off at nights, since Touma did not recognize the previous night. The time was announced by the machine "10 o'clock!" and it proceeded with the day's weather forecast.

"Sunny with no cloud cover. Wear your hats and sunscreen!" It would prove to be spot on, like every other day.

The bus arrived shortly after the announcement. The trip was uneventful and took little over half-an-hour. Once arriving, Touma stood in awe over the size of the building. It was at least 30 stories tall and half a hectare in diameter.

8th District Hospital was the largest hospital in Academy City and housed the famous life-bringer surgeon known as "The Heaven Canceller". He has been known to save patients diagnosed with incurable diseases as if it was nothing. His abilities are highly sort after and any critically ill patient is sent to his clinic for treatment. He was a god among medical practitioners.

Meeting someone in the hospital without a gift is bad manners, and even worse if that person was a complete stranger that saved your life. Flowers seemed to be the perfect gift and there was a florist nearby - The perfect place for overly priced gifts for those who came unprepared.

Inside was a lone woman, most likely in her early twenties. She was busy attending to a few roses though the length of her dark brown hair was easily identifiable from this position. As she noticed Touma and moved to attend to him, he noticed her elongated face, which despite that fact, she would be regarded as quite beautiful.

"Can I help you?" she questioned with a smile. She obviously knew she had a customer with Touma by the body language he displayed – panic and confusion for the perfect gift.

"Yeah… Shizuri, I need some flowers, but I don't have much money…" He read her name tag and included it in his request.

"Oh that's alright, what's the occasion?"

"Umm, 'Just survived gunshot and saved my life' I guess." Shizuri's eyes squinted with the "occasion" Touma provided to her. Momentarily a flash of anger shone in her eyes and her face screwed into disgust. Her grip on the apron that hung over her clothes strengthened then released as she regained control over her emotions and a smile reappeared on her face.

'Why can't I talk to a girl without anger issues?' Touma thought to himself placing a few extra inches between himself and this lost cause serving him.

"Oh, that's for the girl from _**Tokiwadai**_isn't it…? I saw it on the news last night… it's a shame that…" the florist drifted off and finished the rest of her sentence under her breath. She did so in a way one would expect a schizophrenic, or a person intimidating one on a train to persuade people not to sit next to them, to act. It was defiantly working - Touma didn't want to be in her presence any longer and decided on grabbing the nicest looking bunch in his price range.

Replicating his fine form in the art of fleeing, Touma laid the correct amount for the minor amount of flowers he decided to purchase on the counter and disappeared from the scene. He left the blank faced Shizuri in her own little world.

"I swear I saw _him_ with **her **at my other job yesterday… Interesting…" Shizuri mumbled to herself in Touma's absence before being simultaneously questioned and chastised for the magical appearing money and her slack attitude on the job.

The hospital was massive - there was no way for Touma to find Kuroko without asking what room she was allocated. He approached a nurse with her head in the hospital records and rapidly scribing something in gibberish on the records. Noticing his presence, the nurse questioned how she could be of assistance. Giving a last name and time of admission the nurse was able to find Kuroko's room – Second floor, intensive care observation room thirteen.

Moving to Kuroko's room, Touma caught a glimpse of someone he didn't particularly wanted to see so soon, Aiho Yomikawa. She was dressed in her ANTI-SKILL uniform and wasn't looking particularly approachable.

'Aiho took that girls body here yesterday for an autopsy… she's probably here for the results, not stalking me.' Touma tried to console himself over a lamentable situation.

Touma entered the room that the nurse on the ground floor referred him to. As his eyes moved to the bed, he reacted fairly calmly to the condition Kuroko was in, only stumbling in his stance and falling flat on his face in his resolve.

Innumerable amounts of tubes, wires and indicators were protruding and attached to her body. Three stands of fluid bags, each holding at least four individual bags were surrounding her bed. The heart rate monitor and brain activity device were on opposite sides of each other and the worms displaying the information remained constant in their 'bleeps' and 'bloops'.

The sickening sight that was, only yesterday, a healthy 14 year old girl working part-time for JUDGEMENT disturbed Touma. He was the entire reason she was in this condition and he wasn't six-feet-under. He placed the flowers he bought at the florist earlier in a vase next to and in between the devices possibly keeping her alive. The vase was empty when he put his flowers in, he must be her first visitor. Taking a seat next to her bed, just to wait and see if she would respond to his presence he came to a somewhat confusing revelation -

Kuroko was only hit by a few bullets, at most. Why was her condition so bad?

Touma waited as both clock's fingers ticked by slowly and she still showed no signs of consciousness. He was pondering about leaving for the moment and check back up on her later when a loud "Excuse me" boomed over the noise of the door opening.

A small face popped around the corner and then the brown haired prestige of Tokiwadai All Girl's school, Mikoto Misaka, stepped into the room. Her eyes told her story her voice didn't, concern was all there was room for. Purposely ignoring Touma's presence she pulled a large bouquet of flowers out from behind her back. The sheer size and rarity of the flowers dwarfed Touma's effort, to which left him feeling inadequate. After placing the flowers in the same vase, which was close to bursting, she pulled a seat up next to Touma and her face of concern soon became mixed with anger.

"What are _you_ doing here? You don't even know this girl. Don't tell me you knew I'd come and you'd get play your _stupid_ detective game." Mikoto chastised Touma, completely ignorant to the circumstances surrounding Kuroko's hospitalisation. She tried to maintain a strong aura.

" She saved me yesterday… That's why I'm here and not her… But why are you here? You should have school today, don't you go to some schmancy-pancy private school."

"Some things are more important than grades…" she was obviously disheartened about the incident, so Touma decided to be the bad guy, just one more time.

"What do you know about what happened to Miss Shirai?" he politely responded. He didn't particularly want to rock the boat in an already stormy sea. Mikoto huffed and puffed and his question childishly.

"Still playing detective, after all… All I got told was that she was in critical condition after being injured in JUDGEMENT duties... but… seeing her like this is a surprise. This is probably the worse state this little runt has ever been in…" her voice crackled, she was slowly losing herself to her basic emotions and resorted to cracking jokes to halt her tears. Touma gave no response, nothing he could say would help the situation.

He searched his pockets for the phone strap of 'Froggo' that he stole yesterday for her. Now would be the perfect time to present it to her and cheer her up. After all, it wasn't her fault that her friend was in the condition she was in, but his.

"Uhh… Mi...koto? I found this yesterday. I'm not particular about it, but I remember you really wanted it…" he spoke in a hushed tone, though it did not matter as the reaction he received from the girl was ten times louder the complete reverse of what he expected.

"Wha-… Why should be I getting anything! Monsters like me don't deserve anything but a bullet!" she slowly whispered then roared into a screaming match with the universe. Touma tried desperately to calm her down, to no avail.

"N-no it's really ok, you didn't do anything wrong. It was my fault. You're just as much as the victim here…" This response, in colloquial terms, made Mikoto 'Lose her shit'.

"Did anything** wrong**! A **victim?** I almost **killed** my best friend, my junior! She is lying in a hospital bed… all because I sent her to do my dirty work. It should be me in that bed lying like a **fucking** vegetable. I want to trade with her…" The disgusting sight of the powerful persona who is known by first name throughout Academy City, quivering and crying sat next to Touma. Her breathing was heavy from getting herself worked up to the degree she was in. She snatched at Touma's right hand holding the phone strap and moved it to her neck, manipulating his fingers to a grip around her petite neck with her other hand.

"Go. Do it. Put me in a bed like her. Just squeeze, that's what will cheer me up... Give me retribution."

Touma was completely astounded how insanely emotional the situation had turned. He had no intention of injuring this girl, though he had a mind to do so to her "sister". That thought of Mikoto's "sister" then triggered what "3490" had told him before she was killed by a mystery bullet through her grey matter.

"_As for RADIO NOISE…__Ask Big Sis for the details_"

Touma relinquished the forced hold on the small girls neck and grabbed her shoulders in a way an officer would comfort a distressed man 'off his face' on illicit substances. She sniffed and looked at him expectantly for punishment of her mysterious deeds.

"Mikoto, calm down. I think I know how you can help Kuroko. All you need to do is tell me - what is RADIO NOISE?" Touma lied, though he did so for a greater good, or so was his reasoning.

She wiped some of the crocodile tears from blackened, sleep deprived eyes with her palm and symbolically crushed her sadness as she rubbed them into the surrounding skin near the eye sockets. After doing so, she regained some composure and was about to explain the smallest details until the door slammed open and screams of 'FREEZE!' echoed into the room from blind spot where the door is. The composure she momentarily gained was instantly lost.

ANTI-SKILL soldiers armed to the teeth burst into the room, weapons all pointed at Mikoto. Four massive armour clad bodies cramped the already small room filled with medical equipment. Touma stood up to create space and a body between them and Mikoto who was in shock in her seat. Her eyes which were darkened in sadness now stood out of their sockets in surprise.

Behind the faceless goons bobbed the head of the person Touma desperately avoided earlier. Her immense presence and resonated disdain and anger, Aiho was not a person to cross on her good days, let alone the mood she was in now.

"Touma. Step aside we have an arrest warrant for that girl. Move before I have you them go through you to get her." Aiho boomed. She was clearly not happy about the trickery he pulled on her yesterday at those late hours and held a great amount of hostility towards Mikoto.

"Tou… Help… I didn't do anything." squeaked a barely audible Mikoto. Her hands and head burrowed into the back of his shirt and he could feel her shaking. The entire situation would mentally destroy one of her age. A hospitalized junior which she was supposably the cause of, thoughts of death, worthlessness and now a surprise arrest with no reasoning.

"No! I don't know what you think she did, but look at her! Does she look like someone who could pull off any crime? I won't let another get hurt for no reason!" Touma vouched for the girl passionately. He remembered the promise he made to her and change of morals that manifested yesterday.

"Oh? Doesn't she look familiar? Like the girl who put that poor child in that bed, the one who put her life on the line for you...?" Aiho insinuated smugly waiting for Touma to understand what exactly she was arresting Mikoto for. It came slowly, though Touma was prepared to fight to the death to protect his version of the truth.

"That was her sist-" Aiho saved him from the embarrassment the comment would cause him, the only kind thing she would do for him on this day.

"A sister doesn't have a 100% DNA match. That girl was a clone of her, all of them are. She is guilty of every crime they have committed. Now tell me, brat, is she really that innocent? She is the entire source of the problems in Academy City at the moment. Are you going to protect that?"

Touma's eyes widened at the revelation he was presented and turned to the girl who clung onto his shirt. When his gaze tried to search hers, they averted to the side. It was then he realized what Aiho had said was true – this child was guilty.

He slowly backed up and the ANTI-SKILL soldiers moved in to detain her. As they got closer she flew up, knocking the chair she was sitting on to the ground.

'N-No… NO! MISA-**argh**! I - **I** will not go back into the darkness!' screamed Mikoto as she corrected the point of view in which she spoke. She gripped both of her arms and held herself tightly as she backed into the machine helping Kuroko breathe, knocking the flowers the two of them had placed earlier.

'I would rather kill you all then go back.' She harshly concluded as she raised her head with the darkness in her eyes clouding the air between them and. She released her arms and static electricity started filling the air and sparks began to spike from her body onto the metal frames of the bed. The situation was getting too dangerous for the already critical patient. Aiho called the ANTI-SKILL out of the room in hopes of luring her away from any patients to take her down.

She didn't get the chance to chase them.

An incredibly bright light shone into the room and corroded the window and wall facing out to the street. The beam continued through the hospital, immense structural damage had occurred. A call came from the origin of the beam, a woman's voice, most likely an early adult.

"**Gyaahhh!** You prestigious little slut! Get your rich hide out here and face me! You don't deserve No.3, it's time to hand it over to someone more deserving!" roared an insane, menacing voice. Touma snuck a peak before Mikoto jumped out the hole the beam created in the wall to the ground below, completely ignoring Touma.

It was the florist he met with earlier – Shizuri. Yet something seemed different about her. She possessed the aura he felt only for a split second when he mentioned the "occasion" for his visit to her. This was perhaps some kind of personnel grudge, or maybe she knew about Mikoto's secret.

Mikoto fell onto the rubble at the side of the building and slowly trudged over to Shizuri, leaving about 30 metres between the two. She swayed when she walked and did so hypnotically. She seemed almost sickly.

"Today, I, Shizuri Mugino, The No. 4 MELTDOWNER will **kill** the famous RAILGUN! Come No. 3! Give a show to all these terminally ill patients! Like your friend you hospitalized - think of it as your retribution to her!" Shizuri announced to the crowd that would soon either diminish or gather depending on the danger that the fight between them would create. One thing for sure that would increase is the amount of ANTI-SKILL to be on the scene, an innumerable amount of sirens could be heard from miles away.

The entire ANTI-SKILL force was already on its way to detain Mikoto, their timing was all but a coincidence.

Touma looked out of the gaping hole in the wall at the two combatants waiting for each other to start. He knew he had to stop them for the sake of the injured in the hospital. A stray strike like the beam earlier could easily kill multiple people.

Touma grabbed the bed Kuroko was attached to and wheeled it out of the room over the rubble that accumulated on the floor. Most the equipment attached to her had broken from the shock so he left her with the nearest nurse and prayed for their safety. Moments after leaving the room he was just in, the floor above it crashed into the floors below. However, now was no time to be thankful over his newfound luck. Touma flew outside to the battle which had been raging since he averted his eyes to save Kuroko. He had to stop them to save the helpless people that would get caught in the crossfire.

"A Friend in Me"

**END**


	8. Betrayal

"Betrayal"

**August 25, 2020**

The two combatants stood in silence as the tension mounted between the two. The brown haired girl's eyes averted her opponents' gaze which seemed to beg for attention. She remained distant and almost resistant to fight, not that her opponent would allow such actions.

Raising her hand in the teen's direction, the older, more illustrated woman had energy converging a small distance from the previously moved limb. It lasted mere moments before a beam of light resonated from its location towards the girl, whom still fumbled with her feet raising dust from the debris caused by a similar beam. Though this kind of behaviour would seem suicidal in any type of fight, this one did not require her immediate attention. Yet.

The beam stopped short of colliding with the motionless girl. It was a feint attack. She looked up for the first time and their eyes met in this occasion. They spoke the slow samba of deep regret and illusions of existence. The older woman became furious with her, obviously expecting some sort of resistance.

"Hey, look here bitch! How can you be labelled higher than me if you won't even lift a finger to a worthy opponent! Is that it? I'm not worthy to you? Do you want another example?" She growled with a hateful tone. At the conclusion of her rant she gazed down the street that the hospital was on. There was a set of lights with an immense amount of cars piled up. She began to raise her hand, perhaps to send a beam done the street to annihilate the people stuck in traffic. This became a non-thought soon as her provocative spat seemed to work.

Beginning to move her right hand to a horizontal position, the woman was halted before it being put into place. A lash of energy sparked past her, missing the moving arm by inches. Had it moved any further, a one way ticket to a heart attack was guaranteed. It dissolved as it past her.

The depressed girl who opposed the demonic woman stood with renewed energy. There was a small smile on her face and a zap of electricity ran around her. Its white colour was seen as it leeched out gently before dissipating into the air around her. The source of the energy strike was this girl.

"That's a nice thought. You are going to have to kill a **lot** more people than that to surpass me though. Do it **three-thousand** more times and I might consider you worthy to take my title - 'Railgun; Butcher of Academy City', except it'll be whatever you call your power. It's not very impressive, you know? " She smugly giggled, almost insanely taunting the destructive force in front of her. The opposition did not take kindly to her remarks.

"Your mother would be ashamed to have raised such a **brat**. Kids these days sure know where the right buttons are to push someone over the edge. How about you eat some of my non-impressive beams, huh!" was a humiliating retort that was fired back at the seemingly dominating girl.

The woman began gathering a large amount of energy before releasing a large beam, two-fold an adult in diameter. It was shot at a declining axis - it would engulf Mikoto and the surrounding terrain if she was not to move. Powerful attacks are devastating when they connect, however they leave the offense in quite the predicament if they do not connect. Perhaps this woman was not literate in the 'Art of War'.

As the beam rushed with increased haste towards the girl, she looked to her east to the road to find a large ANTI-SKILL wagon parked on the street within 5 metres. Before the beam connected, she turned her body into a giant magnet using the electricity that flew through her nerves and muscles and was pulled to the wagon. Converting all the magnetism into her feet before impact, she landed on the wagon's door horizontally. The aggressor stood in shock for moments when she saw her evasive technique. She was wide open to attack.

A medium sized bolt, the length of a chalkboard ruler and width of a rubber, struck out from the girl's fingers and struck the woman in the abdomen. The woman was temporarily paralysed in her limbs, though her head thrashed and struggled to try to reboot the rest of the body as the girl approached with a swagger.

The brown haired ELECTROMASTER stood over the incapacitated beam-producing antagonist with a smile. A condescending smirk. She pulled out a few coins and displayed them to the woman.

"You know what these are? Tools of the trade. You see, a Railgun is just a weapon that fires accelerated rounds using magnetism. Those rounds don't perish and continue until they hit a target, _thooooousands _ of metres away. But, seeing as everyone needs some kind of restriction, these serve as my ammunition. They… limit the destruction I cause - coins perish really quickly when accelerated. Fun-fact, right? So what one do you want the doctors to find in your head - the one cent, two cent or the big fifty-cent cent? That one is a whopper!" she giggled while displaying the coins to the paralysed woman who's face displayed an agonizing expression, though she couldn't feel any physically. It was all mental anguish at this girl's words.

The brown haired monster randomly selected a coin and placed it in her right hand, pointed at the restricted woman. She remained in this position for moments before her arm started to shake. She couldn't do it. She couldn't 'pull the trigger'.

"HA! You are all talk you little **slut**! Some grand divine superpower you are, huh? If I was in your position I wouldn't even give you a **chance** for your last words! Huh! Still not going to do it? Your all bark and no bite you little hussy, huh?" She worded out to the girl who began stumbling backwards, still holding the 'weapon' to her head. She had created some space between them and the woman began to regain control of her limbs.

Fighting a fight without the will to win is praying for defeat.

Just as the woman began to stand up, a figure jumped in between the two opponents. The girl was spooked by this phantom's sudden occurrence and accidently fired the coin, 'The Railgun'. A wash of guilt overtook Mikoto for moments as she realised she had taken another two lives and only added to the mounting blood on her hands. She turned pale at the thought.

However, in front of the railgun's trajectory after the shot was the same image as before. Her despair was replaced by a mix of emotions, dominated by shock and glee. Touma stood between them, right hand outreached and gritting his teeth. Shizuri noticed the flock of ANTI-SKILL exiting the hospital and the amount of new arrivals appearing and took off into the crowd that gathered in a nearby shelter to watch the fight. Orders of capture on her head were issued and suits of armour followed her.

Touma looked up to see Mikoto collapsing to her knees in front of him. She began whispering things to herself- "H-How…?"

"Hey, snap out of it. I told you I'd look after you, right? That's one more thing you don't have to worry about, alright?" he smiled, shacking her out of the trance she was in. She looked up to him with eyes of promise and nodded. Smiles on both faces greeted each other for the first time, which was interrupted by Aiho.

Aiho had pulled Mikoto up from the ground and cuffed both hands with ability repressing technology. Mikoto reached out to Touma who only acknowledged her plea with a smile.

"This… is the best way to protect you, for now."

A clad of ANTI-SKILL took Mikoto and forced her into one of the wagons. Her face was plastered with anger, all directed to Touma, who had betrayed her trust. Aiho removed her presence and returned inside the hospital to assess the damages.

Touma watched as the ANTI-SKILL wagon took the now detained Mikoto away. He felt bad for betraying her but felt it was necessary in order to sort out the business with this shady syndicate.

He felt worse for watching the wagon depart.

As the wagon travelled down the street, about 200 metres before the first set of lights from the hospital it rolled on its side. 'Oh no!' was the general reaction of the people the accident, yet the reaction should have been something along the lines of 'run!'

The moments following the crash were filled with an eerie silence - it could unnerve even the most battle hardened soldier. The silence was broken by loud thudding noises coming from the area of the crash. Those thuds were followed by an incredibly bright flash of light as electricity flashed out of the area of the wagon Mikoto was placed in. The electricity's volume increased with each passing second until the wagon itself exploded into thousands pieces flying through the street and impaling multiple cars and the buildings around them. The explosion created multiple casualties - however this was only the start of a bloodbath that would be labelled as "Academy City's worst Psychic disaster".

"**Touma Kamijou! I'm going to kill you!**" was the roar that burst into the ears of all those living within a thousand metres of the incident. Touma couldn't blame luck on this one - he brought this all on himself. Bolts of electricity crackled in the air in a massive orb around the enraged girl, but something was different compared to voltage she gave off during the fight with Shizuri earlier. The feeling of discomfort covered Touma quickly, the hairs on his arms stood to attention though the distance between the two was a healthy two-hundred metres.

Stray bolts, lengths of train carriages and radii of two soccer balls flew near him and darted into the hospital behind him but they were not directed at him – similar bolts flew in all directions as she crept frightfully closer. It was then he realised what was different between now and then. Her lightning was a dark blue and it seemed as though she was unable to control it as stray charges sparked dangerously close to fleeing civilians and endangered the integrity of many buildings surrounding the street she pandered on. The street and surrounding building were taking the full brunt of Mikoto's rage, all of which was directed at Touma.

He had to move her away from the hospital, the people inside needed to be protected and the best way to do that was to flee to someone less populated. If she was only after him, then he was sure she'd follow wherever he went.

He was right.

As Touma began to tactically withdraw from the outside of the hospital he realised her slow march up the street from the crash had turned to a full-blown chase. Discharges actually aimed at him now flew high and low, left and right as he continued to run. He couldn't stop and block the incoming attacks – it's humanly impossible to react to a strike of electricity regardless, he'd end up charred just for trying.

So he kept running, praying to find somewhere secluded to try and talk her out of her rage and for the bolts of death to miss him only a little while longer. While fleeing, he lamented on his terrible luck

'If only I was this lucky to have girls chase after me for my love and not my head.'

There was a park ahead, guarded by a sea of trees with a large area of disturbed grass and a massive impact zone. It was sealed off with ANTI-SKILL tape, though that only proved there would be limited people there, those who were would be able to defend themselves. Touma positioned himself near the middle of the abandoned oval and waited for her arrival.

Mikoto was slowly approaching Touma's choice of battlefield, moving in a tranced fashion. Bolts continued to lash out in all directions, incarnating grass and melting metal. Her eyes were glazed and her mouth moved continuously to word out the phrase -

"MISAKA is… MISAKA is… MISAKA is…"

"Betrayal"

**END**


	9. Foul Play

"Foul Play"

**August 25, 2020**

_"What's this?"_

_ "Sir… It's... the original! She's back online!"_

_ "I see. Find LAST ORDER. Reconnect her."_

_ "Aye sir!"_

_ "Also…"_

_ "…"_

_ "Get her mother, she'll be ec**static**."_

8th district's hospital and the surrounding zones were in a state of emergency. A large force of ANTI-SKILL had been called to the scene. The massive, reinforced armoured cars that had now amassed at the partially destroyed hospital and surrounding structures struggled to mount the massive debris left by the enraged psychic that caused a majority of the damage.

The scene itself was something straight out of a video game depicting a grand battle. A war to end all wars. World War Three. It was post-apocalyptic. The streets were destroyed; parts of buildings had collapsed onto the cars and smaller buildings below. An innumerable amount of burning cars were being tended to with the utmost of caution by the ANTI-SKILL units at the scene. Several cars exploded from charges of electricity striking them, setting a chain reaction. Shrapnel impregnation from these explosions was the current leading cause of accounted fatalities. The fire damage of the exploding cars spread to nearby buildings as they caught alight.

The person in charge of this whole desperate operation was none other than the gigantic woman who came to arrest the cause of this disaster; Aiho Yomikawa. She hastily set up a command centre out of the back of several vans and co-ordinated immediate rescue and disaster prevention efforts. The stress she was currently under would have been indescribable.

"Excuse me Ma'am, can I have a moment?" piped a formal requests in a small voice, directed at Aiho. Aiho raised her hanging head in a symbolic position of defeat to answer her question with a face that would paralyse Medusa and her snakes.

"No kids. Designated disaster zones are off limits. Tsuzuri, get her and her friend out of here." She replied, nonchalantly. A woman with dark, green hair and large glasses stepped from behind Aiho and raised her hand in a gesture of salute before her actions were interrupted by the girl.

"But I'm JUDGEMENT! I… I just need to find a patient here… I've got some information she requested." The small voice spoke. It resonated from a fairly petite lass with a gorgeous arrangement of flowers donning on her head. Her big, watery eyes pleaded to the monstrously sized and temporarily aggressive Aiho to change her decision. The girl behind her nodded, as if to support her friends point.

The girl behind the pleading one was slightly taller, and also sported a small flower arrangement in the form of a pin. She gave off the vibe of a woman who, as leniently as possibly put, is "sexually inquisitive". Many a man's heart would be broken in the future due to this young girl's actions, one would assume.

Aiho nodded quickly and motioned to the previously called ANTI-SKILL to tend to her request. They quickly made way to the area currently being used to treat critically wounded patients or patients who would most likely die before reaching either 5th, 6th or 7th districts hospitals. This bit of information was kindly left out by the escorting agent and was explained simply that "if your friend is not here, she's at one of the neighbouring hospitals".

Surely enough, the girl had found the person who she was looking for. She approached the bed of one "Ms. Kuroko Shirai" to see her slowly moving her head with her eyes open. She was conscious, but was probably finding the stressful situation she was just in a bit too much to handle with her body in its current state.

"Kuroko, I… I came to tell you that your assumptions were correct…" the flowers on the girls head slightly drooped upon finding her friend in such a serious condition. Even the promiscuous teen behind her seemed slightly disheartened, like she failed an attempt to entrap a male.

"Uiha-…Kazari… How… did you find out… I told… Mii not to…" Kuroko spluttered, coughing heavily between words. The ANTI-SKILL agent that escorted her looked at the fading figure. Her face radiated shock upon stumbling on this sight. She had been the ANTI-SKILL medic that tended to Kuroko's first aid when she was wounded in fight against the RADIO NOISE unit. The amount of deterioration the girl had suffered between then and now would have been startling.

"She said the worse could…" the girl let the worse possible words out with a few of her tears before correcting what she was going to say; "A-Anyway, he-here have a look at these…" Wiping the tears from her checks, Kazari removed a poorly stapled composition of documents and placed them on Kuroko's chest. Kazari's actions were in incredibly bad taste, placing Kuroko in a precarious position to sit up from her horizontal position on the hospital bed to read them. However, considering the situation, her actions are anything but abnormal.

Slowly, with the assistance of Tsuzuri, Kuroko creaked up. Her right arm was filled with makeshift IV bags that previously covered her entire body. They read "sodium dioxide" and "saline". The medic looked slightly confused, tracing the bags to two different drips, one with a point of entry for a syringe. The extra drip entry had an additional substance inside it, to which the medic deemed it to be shots of "Adrenaline".

This girl's system was being flushed of toxins, from a bullet wound.

As the medic assessed her condition, Kuroko read the documents with increasing haste. She flipped each page over faster and faster until there was almost no time to read its contents. The sound of paper moving was broken by her voice.

"Where is the mistress now?"

_"Sir?"_

_ "Were you able to connect her?"_

_ ""…She is resisting-resisting. She is consciously halting-halting my progress." Says-says MISAKA as she repeats connection protocol."_

_ "Course of action?"_

_ ""I can't locate-locate her, but if she continues to deny-deny me access, she won't be able to move." Continues-continues MISAKA, preparing-perparing a team to search for possible locations."_

_ "**Amp**lify your efforts"_

Kuroko's "mistress" was currently occupied in what is commonly referred to as a 'battle to the death', though it was not quite the case as no fighting had yet to occur. She was fighting an internal battle with herself.

Slowly, Mikoto was losing control of her body. The limp, swaying and demonic movements of the chestnut brown haired girl grinded to a halt. The almost mechanical attack patterns halted instantaneously. The dull, listless eyes seemed to run series of codes, programming and macro through them. Touma felt her presence slowly disappearing.

Moments of silence passed with Touma carefully watching her action, never letting his guard down. She began to sway, her legs twitched and Touma braced; 'Is this some kind of trick? What's her game?' he thought to himself, preparing for an eventual attack.

**Slump.**

The seemingly disillusioned girl suddenly collapsed on the ground, head first. She fell like a sack of bricks. Her body looked to be in the early stages of rigor mortis; instead of being limp, her limbs were stiff as a board. That was impossible, however. The chemical components of rigor mortis occur over an extended period of time. Her muscles must be in a state of contraction, possibly to draw blood from them and direct it elsewhere. Perhaps the electricity around her body suddenly short-circuited her. Whatever the case, Touma took no chances in approaching her.

Retrieving his phone, Touma dialled the number listed under "Aiho". Her voiced boomed through his phone's speakers. If her voice had a physical object attached to it, it would have destroyed the speaker holes on the mobile.

"You! Where are you right now! Where is the mark! Give me a sit-rap!" Touma flinched at her voice. He struggled to understand the ANTI-SKILL jargon used.

"Uhh, I'm in a field surrounded by ANTI-SKILL tape. There is a huge crater here. Mikoto… uhh, the mark is incapacitated-" he was cut off by an enraged Aiho.

"You killed her! The higher ups need her alive! She is the key to stopping this shady group!"

"N-no! I didn't touch her! She… she just…"

"Don't move! I'm sending Tsuzuri and her squad now, she is already in pursuit of a MIA patient. Don't let her go away. Out." Aiho's speech was incredibly authoritive. Whether it was due to the rift that occurred between the two or because of the situation at hand, she spoke to Touma differently to the previous day.

Touma ended the call and pocketed his phone again. His eyes traced over the motionless girl. He could hear her mumbling, but it was nothing but gibberish. It held no weight, bar the repetition of "MISAKA"

An ANTI-SKILL wagon appeared and 5 bodies of armour and a single, smaller-structured woman leapt out, rushing onto the field. With weapons drawn to the face-first-mud-eating positioned girl, the dark green haired woman stepped to attend to her. Slowly, meticulously rolling her to face up from the ground the woman let out a gasp.

"She-She is exactly the same as the other…!"

"Ma'am! Let's bag her and tag her or the equivalent now! I don't want end up like Joishi in that wagon!" one of the seemingly indomitable armoured men announced his fear with a shuddering voice. Tsuzuri was about to give the affirmative for an execution before a desperate, strained voice sung out.

"Mistress!"

Kuroko materialised between Touma and Tsuzuri. She could barely stand. The drips were still connected to her arm, but the IV cords were not. Touma was shocked to see the petite girl appear in front of him. Shocked even more when she violently coughed up blood and collapsed atop of Mikoto's body.

"De-desist … she's my…whole… She can't help being what she is!" Kuroko cried arduously. She spluttered both blood and tears onto Mikoto's uniform. She pleaded her case to Tsuzuri.

"She was forced to do this, she had no choice! Don't punish her for a fate placed upon her at birth! I love her regardless! Mistress- I'm sorry I went behind your back and saved this boy! If I didn't you'd… we would be doing the same old activities!"

Touma felt suddenly sour at Kuroko's accusing words.

For an instance, Mikoto's eyes brightened and the first recognizable words fluttered from her mouth.

"Kuroko, I-"

_"Connection successful_

_ "Good. Force an **RSPK** attack. Have surrounding RADIO NOISE units surround and capture **FULL TUNING**"_

_ "Sir! The mother is here! In you go, swine!"_

_ "Ah such a **stunning** beauty as always … You'll be glad to know your daughter is now in our capable hands once again. What do you say… Misuzu?"_

A scream came from Mikoto before she could finish her sentence. It was short lived, though everyone backed away from girl's body. It was quite a **shock**.

"Mi-Mistress! You're ok! I-" Kuroko was interrupted by a familiar voice. Both Touma and Kuroko's eyes widened at the drastic change of persona. A rising Mikoto was in plain sight, she spoke as she stood. The ANTI-SKILL backed up a great distance in fear, and Touma once again braced himself.

"You will die" a deadly serious and devoid of emotion Mikoto pronounced to Kuroko. Her voice was akin with the sister that attacked Touma and Kuroko yesterday, without the special tick of announcing name and current action. Kuroko looked at her friend with confused horror as she continued to speak.

"You've been hit with special counter-psychic rounds. Every time you channel your ability, a toxin inside of you spreads through your blood. You teleported here? It has spread to vital organs. You are on death's row. What a funny turn of events. Humorous." A soft, robotic chuckle resonated from Mikoto. Or perhaps calling her "Mikoto" is incorrect; she was obviously not the same girl.

Tsuzuri came to a realization at "Mikoto's" words. She perhaps had knowledge of such a round and knew of a way to help the injured girl. She beckoned Kuroko, who was by now being guarded by a fired up Touma.

"Who are you! What did you do to Mikoto! The Mikoto I know wouldn't threat and laugh at the idea of her best friend dying! She would be hiding tears and trying her hardest to not let her friend be in any fear or pain! You are nothing like that girl. You are truly a monster!" Touma boomed a long winded improvised speech. It seemed to come naturally, like he was born to be motivational speaker. Or maybe de-motivational in this case.

"No, I am Mikoto. I even remember telling you. I am a monster. I am the original MISAKA. I am the perfect replication." Her words spun Touma back into his thoughts where he recalled her telling him something along those lines;

_"This city is dark beyond your wildest imagination. And if you find out what is at its core – Well, I guess this monster will just have to find room in her heart for one more crime"_

Touma stumbled in his determination but quickly recovered. He had to stop this imposter and remove her from the body of the girl both he and Kuroko knew.

"Miss Shirai. Would you be so kind to go with the ANTI-SKILL and leave this to me? I'll save you this time. I'll save everyone, even Mikoto. But I need you to leave. Can you do that for me?" Touma's compassionate and calm words promised things he was most likely unable to keep, though he had to. He knew he couldn't beat her, but it was time to step up. Time to become a hero. Time to **man the truck up**.

Kuroko was hesitant at first, but was ultimately persuaded and teleported near the ANTI-SKILL soldiers, coughing more blood than ever before. Tsuzuri gave Touma a nod of condolence, a "we're right here to bag your lifeless corpse for when you fail" nod. It did anything but fill Touma with confidence.

"Mikoto's" face became stone cold, and performed a slight bow, almost recognition that from now on, all matters are strictly professional. Small, sharp bolts flew towards a dancing and dodging Touma, occasionally using his right hand to block a well-placed attack. "Mikoto" remained in the same spot and continuously attacked with little to no effort.

This volley of constant attacks continued for some time. Touma had no gap to attack. He constantly analysed his opponent for an opening to no avail. He attempted a headlong charge at his adversary, blocking the incoming attacks. This, however only ended in him repositioning the emotionless monster he was battling.

Signs of slight frustration were appearing in her method of attack. Her attacks drifted from poking and prodding strikes to heavier, higher voltage and higher impact attacks. She was obviously tiring of using such a rudimentary method of constant suppression.

The battle was almost akin to boxing match. Touma was a super-lightweight amateur challenging the heavy-weight champion. He could no damage on the monstrous combatant and was forced to dodge each and every one of her devastating, OHKO blows.

Another way to view it would be two soldiers in a past war fighting each other. One (Touma) is equipped only with a knife; the other ("Mikoto") has a complete arsenal at her disposal. The mismatch this fight presented was horrendous. It has to be stressed that either Touma was buying time for someone to supress "Mikoto" or he was simply fighting out of a man's foolish pride.

The later seems to be the more reasonable explanation.

"This is no good. I don't think I can keep avoiding these attacks any longer." Touma whispered to himself with the tone of a man on the edge of defeat, a man with his last penny on 32 black in roulette.

_"Well? RSPK her."_

_ "She has already been in the RSPK state before she connected-connected. Reactivating-reactivating it will-"_

_ "LAST ORDER, cancel connections to all combat units, only END TRANSMISSION are to be active. All energy is to be used to RSPK that girl, now."_

_ "…Roger"_

"Mikoto's" attacks halted spontaneously. She drew her attention away from Touma and let out an affirmation to an unknown entity.

"Roger."

RSPK, or Recurrent Spontaneous Psycho-Kinesis Syndrome is, simply put, a phase in a psychic's mental state where they lose control over their ability and body. With this loss of control, comes an increase in psychic ability and if the psychic is powerful enough, a spread of the RSPK syndrome into surrounding psychics.

Her lifeless, unappreciated eyes closed and "Mikoto" collapsed. Touma thought this to be the perfect time to attack and took the offensive. Before closing the approximate twenty metres between the two, Touma heard a roar emanate from the fragile teen collapses on the turf. He pushed on after his sudden startle and raised his right fist to strike the vulnerable Mikoto.

**CRASH!**

Touma was flung back by an almighty explosion of a dark, wispy substance. It rose from the ground and engulfed Mikoto who cried in pain before the black substance expanded like a nuclear fission explosion. Touma, blown back a similar distance he travelled, marvelled in the sight that was now "Mikoto".

Around her, black particles rose from the dirt. They grew in intensity until all was left was a black cloud swirling around her. For fragments of a second, Touma could see inside of the swirling black particles to the emotionless child inside.

Her brown, glazed eyes spoke words of solemn disappointment, contrasted against the violent visual noise of the black cloud around her.

Touma stood in amazement as he pondered his course of action. Questions and solutions swirled in his head, though all thoughts eventually returned to one point:

'What is that thing?'

A single black lash struck out from the enveloping cloud and gripped Touma's left arm. The cloud wrapped around his wrist then extended up his arm, eventually enveloping the entirety of it. As its grip tightened, he cried out in pain and the true extent of the attacks nature became apparent.

The black cloud was magnetised iron, swirling around its controller. They are all violently repulsed by each other, they are unable to touch. This is what creates the noise effect. This same noise effect was like a million cheese graters. Touma could feel the iron dig its teeth into his flesh. Excruciating pain, that's all he could muster up to think about. No strategy of escape or attack. Just the recognition that;

'Hey, this hurts like all of hell's monsters eating my internal organs through my nose.'

A clever simile that didn't quite depict the vulgar language that streamed through Touma's head. But the gist is explained with such a simile.

Touma relinquished his clenched eyes to see his attacker monotonously creep towards him. His blinking slowed; time seemed to drag on and on. The brown haired assailant drew a long, serrated object that could be described as a sword made out of vibrating iron. As it materialised, her blank face showed a fragment of pain arise on the surface. Touma linked this pain to the hand of the monster holding the blade. Blood dripped and splattered slightly on the back of her hand and on her uniform. Her palm was suffering intense damage from gripping the deadly weapon.

Touma was restricted to the ground by the grip and watched as she brandished the sword before his face. He winced at the air being blown onto his peripherals by the whirling of the iron. Small particles of blood sprayed his face. The blood of his attacker was now on his body. 'Well, at least the forensics team will know what killed me…' he assured himself, ever the defeatist. Touma's morale continuously declined throughout the battle and had now hit the pits.

He braced himself for the worse.

_"…!"_

_ "What is it?"_

_ "Connection lost."_

_ "What! Get her back online!"_

_ "It's not her, I can't communicate-communicate with any of the units in the area. Magical intervention, It's blocking my communication for that region."_

_"Sir! Reports of RSPK in the psychics around 8th district are coming in! The district is suffering major damage!" _

_ "Sir! Conflicting reports! RSPK in the effected psychics as ceased. Major damage sustained to the district."_

_ "…Scrap the current plan. Continue with our WORST CASE SCENARIO program. All monitoring of this region is to be discontinued. LAST ORDER…"_

_ "…"_

_ "This is your second failure. Do not disappoint the Heads again."_

_ "…"_

_ "_Mikoto" fell into unconsciousness once again. Seriously, there was something wrong with this girl's mental stability. Maybe she should develop a proper sleep pattern. The magnetised iron piled on the ground; it fell from its assisted levitating state. The grip on Touma's arm relinquished its hold and he scrambled back. He felt rage take him over. He wanted to inflict some sort of pain on the person who had caused him and increasing amount of trouble and faced him with death several times. He wanted to vent his anger, his trauma on the one responsible.

He stood over the girl, rolled her to face up and pulled his fist back in a motion similar to cocking a gun. He kept saying to himself "Do it! Do it! **Do it**!" He hesitated, he hesitated enough for enough time for her to regain consciousness. She was not the least bit surprised.

"You…I-I blacked out. I did something bad, right? That's why you are holding a fist to my face. Well then? Do it. Be the hero this city needs, finish me before I get detained and killed by ANTI-SKILL." Mikoto worded out methodically, almost like she had prepared the speech for this exact occasion. That thought didn't surprise Touma. He now knew he couldn't hurt her physically, he couldn't do it. So he resorted to a psychological assault.

"You aren't worth it. It's not you that deserve to die, but the thing inside you. When it reappears, expect me to destroy you and it's illusions of superiority. Perfect? Hardly." An obvious lie, seen straight through by the girl.

"You were almost killed by me in that state! Do me in now! I won't resist. I saw how you were, you would have died… Do onto others before they do onto you, yes!" She pleaded. If she was so intent on dying, why wouldn't she just commit?

That line of reasoning led him back to the fight she had previously with Shizuri. Despite the scary act she put on, she was unable to do the deed. She was a coward. She needed other people to do her dirty work. She wanted someone to protect her. She is co-dependant.

This quick psycho-analysis would lead to a lethal psychological weapon with potentially unforeseen circumstances. Touma ignored the warnings and pushed the metaphorical button "detonate".

"I won't have to if I can save you from such a fate. I will stop RADIO NOISE. I will get to the bottom of it. I will destroy it. You can sleep easy; I'm on your side. So please, go with ANTI-SKILL, I promise you won't be killed, but that is all I can do for now." Another obvious lie. Touma's delivery of this line was so unconvincing you'd have to be blind (read; deaf) to believe it. She blinded herself from the truth to accept this.

A small sparkle in her eye arose, a sign of hope. A sign for "Mikoto Misaka, Butcher of Academy City" to start anew. A sign of forgiveness. What she had searched for in the darkness and finally found…

Was in a lie.

ANTI-SKILL soldiers in bulk arrived on the scene after the threat had been pacified. 'These are the people on the frontline keeping Academy City in check? Then what am I? The bullet?' cynically thought Touma. Aiho approached the willing girl, and unlike last time took extraordinary measures to secure her. Tranquilizer, ability suppressor injection, ability suppressor cuffs and a common blindfold were all administered to the girl who was then taken away in a massive convoy of suits in armour. Aiho glanced at Touma once she was detained.

"You did good kid. Ever thought about joining the Force?" She smiled and spoke similar to their first encounter, though she remained dominant and daunting in every other aspect.

"I did, when I first came to the City. All CHILD ERROR's strive to be ANTI-SKILL. But I don't think it's for me." He conceded and ignored the praise she gave him. He did nothing, the only reason he didn't die was pure coincidence. For once in his life, luck shined on his side. Aiho looked slightly disappointed, but this disappointment was soon replaced with sadness.

"Well now that's said, I've got some bad news. Your little saviour, Kuroko…" Aiho implied Kuroko's name in an upward tone, trying to lead him into guessing what she was about to say. When Touma offered nothing like an answer, she sighed and continued; "…She died when the RSPK breakout occurred. Ask Tsuzuri for the details, she's the dorky looking one... Sorry kid, really."

Shock and Awe tactics are employed to disillusion the enemy into thinking victory was impossible. The same disillusion was being felt by Touma at the breaking of this news. He rushed to Tsuzuri who was currently in the company of two girls, one with an extraordinary flower arrangement on her head, the other with a minor one in comparison. Their libido was as adjacent as their flower arrangements. However, their sadness was of equal value.

"Oh… Umm… She was forced to use her ability in the RSPK state… the poison was in remission until that moment, when she died of a heart attack. That's all I know, I'm only a field medic. Since she is the first to die of such a condition, her body will be used forensically so no one else can suffer the same fate. The Heaven Chancellor made it his top priority… it's a shame she had to…"

"I-I lost control too… But…I'm only a level 1…" The smaller girl with more flowers whimpered. Further investigation would find out that psychics in the entire region were placed into the RSPK state. Most of the district had been damaged by renegade psychics. ANTI-SKILL from across the City was called in to supress them. Yet suddenly the RSPK effect disappeared. At the centre was none other than Mikoto Misaka.

"It was still pretty scary Kazari. Hee, I need a cheer up…" The taller girl sniffed before throwing the plaid, casual wear dress the smaller girl was wearing into the air. Touma felt an instant urge that spoke volumes in his head; **bitches and whores**.

Drama between the two ensured and Touma tried to pull himself out of the cynical slump the previous fight placed him in. He was so obsessed about hurting Mikoto deep enough that a barrier now appeared in his emotional balance. Her instability was rubbing off on him.

"Y-your arm! Look at it!" The now calmed down small girl exclaimed. Touma himself had completely ignored it. Adrenaline is a magical substance.

"I'll take you and Kazari to 8th district. She needs to be checked up after the RSPK attack and you… well you can tell why you're going." Tsuzuri smiled, gesturing Touma and Kazari to a wagon. She turned, forgetting to invite the other, uninjured girl.

"You can come too, I'll take you home."

"I-Its ok, let Kazari enjoy her time with a boy!" was the joking answer given by the other girl.

"R-Ruiko! Don't say things like that!" she puffed her cheeks in embarrassment.

**Bitches and whores** sounded again in Touma's head.

As Touma conversed in idle chit-chat with the two ladies, he couldn't help but feel somewhat defeated. He had no intention of following through with his proclamation he made to Mikoto, quite the opposite. He planned to deny her, for maximum psychological damage. But upon reflection, his good nature began to twist this hatred into remorse. He now realised he was unable to double-cross this declaration. If faced with it, he would most likely submit to assisting her.

Such is the life of a good natured person.

"Hero?" he smirked to himself. "Just my luck."

At a distance from the scene of the previous battle, atop of a building looking down into the park was Motoharu. He stood above a body identical to the girl Touma had just fought with a sniper rifle's bi-pod deployed a facing the field. He was bleeding from the mouth, and clutched his side like he was experiencing intense pain. Set-up behind him was what seemed to be a magical diagram with multiple colour markings inside of a large circle.

Motoharu crouched down and eventually sat upon the body of the lifeless girl. He adjusted the position of the gun he had used to put a .45 in the back of her head to a more comfortable one, not adjacent and dangerously directed to his crutch. He read the name on the goggles she sported; "END TRANMISSION 15038" and chuckled, watching the wagons carrying Touma and Kazari as well as the one carrying Mikoto leave the scene.

"Well GROUP needs four members…"

"…and one as outstanding as you will go a long way…"

"… But what will serve well as a tool for blackmail…"

"…Kami…?"

"Foul Play"

**END**


	10. MISC The Manufactured Fault

_This is essentially a "tie-in chapter". Nothing new occurs. Just a little insight and hindsight to a few of the characters and heavy implications to new antagonists! Another "tie-in chapter" will come after this; basically a day in the shoes of Accelerator. Expect ITEM, SCHOOL and FRESHMAN cameos. Please bare with my insanities._

'The Manufactured Fault'

_[The following is the diary of the Head Researcher of the batch with the hidden 'CANCEL ORDER' program designed to be able to detach units from the RADIO NOISE network when they are captured. It is to prevent reverse engineering into the network and the syphoning of the classified information within. At the moment, the procedure of dealing with captured clones is destruction of said unit by the use of the 'END TRANSMISSION' squad. We want to try to prevent a waste of combat available units, thus 'CANCEL ORDER' is the preferred alternative.]_

_[The log covers a week prior to the laboratory's destruction from a mutiny staged by the clones it created. False information of a failed experiment within units 2001 to 3000 was fed to the researchers as they unknowingly proceeded with the experiment. The 'CANCEL ORDER' program was disguised as a cure to the fake problem in the network. The following is kept for future reference to highlight the errors in the implementation and to determine the correct way to apply the 'CANCEL ORDER' program to units 19001 to 20000]_

_-RADIO NOISE Administration Board._

**[Head Researchers log]** Date: August 9, 2020.

Being tasked with the batch of unit 7001 to 8000 at first seemed fairly simple. Their physical development is nearing completion without a sign of trouble. It all seems to follow the tried and tested recipe used by other institutions and labs with the creation of prior units, yet the higher ups are requesting a modification in the perception and personality implants. Units, after the experiment to make them less co-dependent in clones 2001 to 3000, seem to show belated side-effects of poor teamwork and a cancerous sense of self-worth. This is spreading throughout the network and may cause an abrupt end to the 'RADIO NOISE' experiment as a lack of communication could lead to an increased rate of mission failures, or even defiance in regards orders.

Thus, with this batch, a hotfix program received from headquarters will be uploaded to the units and forced to spread along the system to make them more compatible with each other. We are basically tasked to repairing leaks, leaks that shouldn't have even occurred. Tests will begin to determine the effectiveness of the hotfix patch as the lead subjects become available to experiment with.

**[Head Researchers Log]** Date: August 11, 2020.

The first completed specimens, 7001, 7002, 7003 and 7004 have all been run through traditional preprograming procedures - language faculties, common knowledge, firearms and combat training have all been completed. The resilient bug in the language instalment continues to persist as researchers ran the subjects through the mandatory oral and aptitude test. A point of interest, when the subjects took the aptitude test without personality instalments, they all responded differently to the stimuli offered. Due to this, a possibility of allowing the subjects to develop their own personality over time may occur with intriguing results for both the experiment and an understanding of the human mind.

All show no improvement in ability to command electricity, much to my expectations. The order for the electronic field observation spectacles has been filed and sent, unfortunately. A wise man said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so a few of my team may be insane based on this…

Firearms training is becoming more and more difficult as they have not be equipped with mentality of a soldier and are beginning to fear the weapons. The personality adjustment implants are increasing in necessity.

**[Head Researchers Log]** Date: August 12, 2020.

Initial reactions displayed by 7001 to the personality and perception adjustments were nothing but positive. Her currently developed personality over the past few days was immediately erased and replaced by the hotfix. The first brain functioning test revealed that she shares the normal brain functions of the other clones after the implementation, so until we do a stress test we may not know if the program has succeeded. If this hotfix transfers to the rest of the clones, we may be able to remove the malignant thought process that has infected the 'RADIO NOISE' system.

An increasing amount of units are becoming available for experimentation, we have almost hit half of the units to be processed, though not implemented. Each unit in this batch will be receiving the hotfix after the positive results displayed by 7001.

[Head Researchers Log] Date: -, -

_[Elements of an entry was written within the dates of the 12th and 15th, but the information of the log was lost on transfer.]_

**[Head Researchers Log] **Date: August 15, 2020.

7001 has been self-terminated. She was lost in a live fire exercise when surrounded by hostiles. As the cardboard cut outs surrounded her in Room LF5 the instruments detected erratic brain patterns until the point of a cease in functioning. She reacted to the daunting presence by detonating a plastic explosive near her vicinity whilst destroying the targets.

Autopsy shows she died from the shockwaves of the explosion interfering with her already limited control of the electricity in her body. The uncontrolled electricity caused multiple heart failures and paralysation of the nerves and muscles harbouring the voltage. This is already a known weakness in the units that intense shockwaves can displace the currents swirling in their bodies. Further development may see rise to a way to remove this problem, or perhaps a way to protect them from it.

However, this is a new and isolated incident within the RADIO NOISE project; it is the first time a unit has committed suicide. We are currently unsure if this is related to the implementation of the hotfix program and we will confirm with a live fire exercise run with units 7002 and 7003.

On a side note, only 100 more units remain to be awakened. I am aware that other institutions participating in the RADIO NOISE program are also increasing the rate of which the new clones are being developed. A friend from [_institution name_] has told me that there will be approximately 15000 units ready for combat by the coming month's end.

**[Head Researchers Log] **Date: August 16, 2020.

We've been on lockdown since just after midnight. We've lost multiple staff members and are gradually losing control of facilities to the units already installed with the hotfix. It started with the run of 7002 and 7003 in their live fire exercise where they determined researchers running the experiment to be hostile and executed them. Afterwards, one of them turned arms to the other unit then to itself. There was a bug in the hotfix. Erratic behaviour and thoughts are seemingly the result when the unit is put under stress - however we had word that these reactions are not present with units receiving the hotfix over the network. Clones directly implemented are extremely self-destructive and highly dangerous. Thus, we've taken procedures to at least lock away one unit, 7054. She is being restrained in a confinement cell to allow the hotfix to spread over the network. The last unit to be implemented with the hotfix was 7443, though it was only partially uploaded.

We've sent multiple requests to the higher up to have LAST ORDER put the renegade units under control, but have received neither response from headquarters nor reaction from the units themselves. Remaining staff have retreated to Admin's Quarters. Whilst waiting I've sent my log to all other institutions in the event we do not see the sun of tomorrow. Have we… Have we been left out to dry…?

_[Initial reaction from LAST ORDER revealed that the first unit to receive the patch, #7001, was able to detach from the network, but couldn't reconnect. With the batch doomed to fail, most communication with the institution was cut off, however even the batch's mental reaction to the patch came as a surprise. All units implemented with the hotfix were unusable, bar 7743 who was able to reconnect and be controlled though kept the irregular responses shown in the other implemented units.] _

_[All units before 7743, aside 7054 who is currently MIA, are confirmed destroyed. They either destroyed themselves or were eliminated by the 'END TRANSMISSION' units LAST ORDER marshalled. Units 7743 to 8000 are available for use in the RADIO NOISE program, though 234 units were destroyed in the chaos of the laboratory's destruction.]_

_[However, it seems distant before we can perfect the CANCEL ORDER system. If worst comes to worst, we may have to start from the beginning and recreate another clone variant. That is the worst case scenario. I stress – The WORST CASE SCENARIO.] _

'The Manufactured Fault'

**END**


	11. MISC Dead and Buried

_This chapter will have a slightly obscure writing style compared to my normal one. It will follow a first-person perspective of Accelerator. I've added a quirky component; however will try not to deviate from his character… Outside of the usual insanity that comes with this story, of course. There is an abundance of puns, small cameos and a couple of common phrases. Try and find them all in my horrid writing, not that they are hidden._

"Dead and Buried"

**August 25, 2020**

_**Thud, thud, thud, thud…**_

…_Urgh… who the fuck is stomping around out there…?_

_**Thud, thud, thud…**_

_It's getting closer… Good I'll tear your throat open…_

_**Thud, thud, ka-chink-!**_

"Get your lazy arse out of bed! It's oh-six-hundred! Hupp-two soldier, up and at 'em!" boomed a woma- no that would be giving her credit as a member of the female race. She is no Venetian and may god forbid her to reproduce. Her body may be shaped like one but that hardly gets a passing grad from me. Ah well, for now I'll regard her as genderless, much like myself. Birds of a feather, I suppose.

"It" or otherwise referred to as "Aiho Yomikawa" burst open the door and disturbed me from my otherwise peaceful sleep. I was thoroughly enjoying the pleasant change in scenery from my slum to this, in comparison, mansion. That instant urge to kill and bathe in the blood of my enemies had strangely dispersed. It might've had something to do with her-no, "It" being so kind to me, a monster, last night. That's probably the reasoning that stopped me from gauging her- I mean "It's" eyes out and helping myself to the three grams of fat and seven grams of protein those sensory organs possess… where was I…? Ah right.

Well, she turned the lights on suddenly…. I got it wrong again? Didn't even notice. It seems I created a label I can't stick too. "Aiho" will have to do.

"Come on, I've got to get to work **today**. Big news, big news indeed! I'm sure you heard it on the news? The assassin we caught outside of a dorm yesterday? Well apparently the boss got some staggering news!"

Surprisingly lively, for this time of day. Like Aiho screamed earlier, it was only six a.m. Did I automatically adjust to the light? I'd say so, I've never known any different. Everything seems to just happen automatically to keep all my senses at this stable level. I guess that's what you get for being, essentially, the world's biggest supercomputer/serial killer.

I rose out from the relative comfort the sheets and doona's that I was offered last night gave me. I took a long, unapprovingly glance at Aiho. Aiho seemed to wanting something in the form of gratitude. Tough luck, that just isn't in my nature. We shared a mini-competition, the act of a stare-off. I won, convincingly might I add. Aiho seemed that "It" just did not have the time to be playing games. "It" seemed skittish; something had her in both suspense and worry. Man, these "trooper" types really piss me off… They get worked up over the littlest things…

"_Aahh! You killed Juno! Y-You're a monster!"_

"_My legs are __**not**__ weapons! Do __**not**__ beat my friends with them!"_

"_My blood! He punched out, __**all**__ my blood!"_

Honestly…

"Basically, what I'm saying is that you have to get your bum arse out of my house. You're a nice kid, but I can't have you in my house when I'm out, you know?"

Yeah, yeah. I got the gist when you told me earlier. I'm a supercomputer, after all. This City's most powerful psychic. Simple implications are nothing to me.

And like that, "It", myself and I were facing an abnormally cold August morning on the streets of Academy City, 9th district. Aiho offered me a lift in the general direction of her 8th district office, but I nonchalantly declined. If I had an interest in the other gender, I'd be a proper right pimp.

It's not that I'm a misogynist, I just don't like people in general. Bother, hassle, dead-weight, useless. All words that are synonyms with "person" in my dictionary. Well, thesaurus is the closer term… but I digress, the point I'm making here is:

I got myself this far by myself. Myself alone.

Especially not with _his_ help.

That's when I remembered, recalling past events does that to you, remembering things. It's like looking for something and finding another thing completely unrelated to what you are looking for. Regardless, I've an appointment today. My first one of these social tasks I've had since I left that god forsaken research facility. Being a freelance psychic for so long… the idea of an appointment was so nostalgic…

It was sickening, in other words.

I slipped the piece of paper I wrote the address and time on and gave it a good look over, not that I needed too. I already knew; supercomputer, remember? I just wanted to double check.

August 25th, 3:15 pm.

Honestly… What am I going to do for the next 9 hours?

Rape, pillage and plunder? A capital idea. Yet today just didn't feel right.

"Sunny with no cloud cover. Wear your hats and sunscreen!" rang the 6:30 weather update from the TREE DIAGRAM. Well, I was right. Such a pleasant day shouldn't be filled with bloodshed.

Though tonight… tonight just feels all kinds of right!

Wandering around such a large City can get tiresome, I'll admit it. I'll also admit that the other side of this City just seems… lighter, if that makes sense. 63rd and 70th district, for example have a distinct lack of game and organised crime compared to this side. It's no wonder I'm on this side of the City more often then, isn't it?

Well, nothing to do… I guess I'll get something to eat then.

All things considered, I don't eat much. Sometimes I think I must be some kind of plant that photosynthesises, yet that's not possible. This bleached hair, my ghostly skin, my arrogant attitude, all due to my passive nature of my ability.

Well maybe not my attitude, that's probably got something to do with a psychological issue. No parents, tortured childhood, enslavement, etcetera. You pick one, make one up and I'll agree; that's what fucked me up. I don't really care; I'm fucking Number #1! Besides, there has never been a mentally stable genius, and I'm the smartest there is.

It's genetics.

Trudging to my favourite eatery on this side of the City, I took a seat in my favourite (and may I add the biggest) lounge and waited to be served. Criminals are always hanging out and making deals here. The owner gets paid off to let them do it. It's the perfect spot for eavesdropping to find locales to hunt in the night. Let's see what we can find…

_"…I know! I know! Bam! Just like that, the "boy in goggles" broke his arm. He only…"_

Nothing there…

_ "…Kazari, why'd you wake me up so early! I was having the best dream, I was sucking this big…"_

Not even the slightest bit interesting.

_"…How much? How many super doses will that get?"_

Ah, that's better. Sounds like a drug deal.

_"Depends, who's using it?"_

_ "Takitsubo. She's a super heavy user, you know? She's got to have it to use her super ability."_

The waitress finally grew the testicles to serve me at one of the more critical times in my action of eavesdropping. A spiteful hairy eyeball was all I could muster to tell her "ask later, bitch".

Fucking woman, can't you see I'm in the middle of prying into someone else's life?

Better than prying their ribcage open and devouring the soft, delicious organs inside. At least for their sake. Early morning isn't a prime time to invest in cannibalism either.

Oh and I'm not actually a cannibal. Think of it as a Hyperbole.

_ "Tsk, t'is whole situation is a shame, it is. T'at young, pretty girl needing BODY CLEAR to use her ability and an even younger girl buying t'e stuff for her. I'd say… t'is amount will do you for what you've got on you."_

I can hear a pen scribbling a number… I can't tell, but it's a fairly large number.

_"…You trying to screw me? I super know how much BODY CLEAR is worth, Shiage. Don't make me take care of you here, super you know? It's even for Takitsubo, you can lower the price, can't you?"_

I heard her blink. She's trying to be cute. I'm going to rip her throat out. I'm **super** going to rip her throat out. And that voice of hers sounds like a trendy girl… Her voice makes me want to grind my teeth against a brick wall! Yet that gusto is getting me a little anxious. She give me this vibe that she is like me six years my junior.

_ "Alright, sheesh. Can't blame a guy for tryin'. I gotta make some money on t'e side too y'know? A grunt like me doesn't get much from t'e bosses for being in ITEM."_

_ "Lackey, just find some pretty cheap, ok? This is all I got from the heads. Shizuri got some super-secret plan to take out some super annoying "GROUP", you know?"_

_ "_GROUP"… sounds familiar. Well I'm just about done here-

**Ching-Ding.**

"Alright Kinuhata, let's go! Lackey, get out of my sight and get what we need. My beautiful legs are sick of waiting on sentry du-" Blonde hair? Red beret? Paler than me? Bad attitude? A foreigner for sure. She stormed into the eatery then basically yelled at her friend _**half**_way across the room. She burst into a _**half**_-hearted laughter, as if trying to cover up something she just said. Sorry, doesn't work like that, _**half**_wit. You might fool idiots that are _**half**_ listening, but not me. She really must only be _**half**_ there.

Essentially, here is the rundown. You and that young girl sitting at the table with that monstrosity of a man are high ranking members of some organisation that requires a supposably substantial amount of BODY CLEAR. This already puts you into my "organised crime/syndicate that would be enjoyable to butcher" category. Do I win a prize?

Oh, and might as well go back over my knowledge of BODY CLEAR, just be _**crystal **_on the matter.

BODY CLEAR is basically an illicit substance that works in much the same way as crack-cocaine does on a CHILD ERROR, except it is especially for psychics. It heightens the ability of the user to otherwise impossible levels temporarily. Sounds awesome right? Well there are drawbacks.

The more you use BODY CLEAR, the more you _need_ it. It becomes compulsory to use it to be able to use your ability at all. It is also highly addictive as the rush of power it gives becomes too seductive. It's also very expensive, costing an office drone an arm and a leg just for the tiniest amount of it. This also puts you girls and your group into the "organisation backed by the dark side of Academy City", simply because any person looking to buy more than a fingernail of the stuff is either a celebrity or backed financially.

And you little skanks don't look like the superstar type to me.

Well everything has its plusses and minuses, which I plan on tallying right now. Don't be too worried ladies; it's just the fate of your lives and your organisation hanging on the result of this tally.

Dark, mysterious organisation? One point to killing them.

Young girls? Well, I don't particularly like staining my hands with their blood and it is awfully early in the morning. I'm sure I could find trouble elsewhere. Half a point to not killing them.

Dark side backed? Another point to killing them.

Annoying? Another point.

Saying "super" too much? Three points.

I just plain don't like you. Another point.

…

Well that's good enough for me!

I watched the three of them leave, with the two girls leaving the eatery on foot and the ugly beast-man by automobile. I thought to myself 'Right, I'm not hungry anymore for food. Live game sounds so much better…' until I was interrupted by someone hovering behind me. It's that dam waitress, for sure. Sorry toots, but I'm a bit-

"We need to have a chat." Awaki, a fiery haired and natured bitch was behind me. She was bounded by fresh bandages on her chest and still wore her over-sized jacket slash coat slash cape. I really did not like the idea I was going to be working with her in the future; something ticks me off about her. Like we share a common interest, something possibly illegal. She probably likes little boys or something. Weirdo.

She helped herself to a seat opposite to me and the waitress I eyed off earlier literally jumped over seats like an Olympic hurdler to take our order. Toast seemed perfectly ok for me. The bitch opposite to me ordered a French breakfast. I guess being a mole takes up a lot of energy. Try being apathetic about anything but killing and you can eat like me.

As Awaki devoured the three course meal in front of her and sprayed crumbs of croissants and French toast over **my** table and **my **clothes, I nibbled on my 50 cent piece of toast and 30 cent spread of butter, muffling my thoughts of killing her at that very moment.

'I could turn the blood into pure nitrogen, giving her an aneurysm! Or I could destroy her haemoglobin and have her bleed out from a paper cut! Or even-'

Awaki glanced at me for moments before giggling with her mouth stuffed of pastry. She waved her finger and shook her head disapprovingly.

"I know what you're thinking and no I won't let you. You'll have to contend with this fork in your heart if you want to try something like that."

Oh, she saw straight through me. That bitch. Oh well, I guess my poker face isn't the best when thinking about something you truly enjoy. Nobody's is. But if she is going to cut me off while I'm in the middle of thinking I'm going to –

"You saw those girls and guy in here earlier right? You over heard them, didn't you? I'd be ashamed if you didn't pick up the gist of what they are planning to do, Number 1. Especially who that 'super' girl is. If a lowly Level 4 could figure that out, surely Academy City's best could."

That's it. Now I've lost it. I know I can kill her. My lost pride is just beyond her fractured skull. She's mocking me. Her smug attitude is going to make me compulsively burst my fist through her face.

To answer your question; No I don't and no I don't care. I was going to kill them before you came here blabbing to me, what's the difference once they are dead?

"That stupid, angry look on your face tells me what you don't. I mean, you didn't even realise, did you? How similar her AIM field is to yours? Your background check revealed you were a CHILD ERROR. But evidently… here you are; Academy City's top psychic. How did you do it? Is it something due to a man named…"

Background check? Shit these guys are serious. I might be in a bit too deep to pull out now if I get the urge… I hate the people I'm with and I hate the question and methods that proceed with. Oh well, I know who she is going to say. Cue surprise in three, two, one….

"…Amata Kihara…?"

Elementary my dear Musujime.

"Heh. Yeah, he took me out of the orphanage I was in and put me straight into a research facility, followed by another and then another. I honed my abilities that way. But you already knew that, right?"

"Of course…"

A slight pause. I finished what was left of my breakfast and prepared to get up before I found something heavy and loud appear on my lap, slamming me back into the chair. A stack of plates crashed onto me. She must have teleported them onto me to keep me in place. She only smugly smiled at me. This one is going to be a hassle. I don't think this conversation is going to be worth my time.

"Tell me, Accelerator. Do you think you were the only one?"

"Of?" Don't ask me evasive questions when I'm giving you my divided attention.

"The only one they created? I'll answer for you, speed this up. Of course you weren't. However, you were the first and best subject. Get it now?"

Not really, but I'm not exactly trying. What I am trying to do is get these plates off my lap and figure out where those girls wandered off to. I could do for a serving of death.

"I'll let you in on something Motoharu doesn't want you to know. Amata or rather Professor Kihara is one of our top targets alongside LAST ORDER. Why? Have a guess."

Her smug attitude was really starting to shit me off. Even the waitress could see the anger pent up in me when she practically fled the moment our eyes crossed. Play it smooth, Accelerator. Don't lose your temper… Answer well enough to shut her up.

"He is part of the organisation behind RADIO NOISE? It seems only natural. I was planning to kill him regardless."

"Close! Very close. But also wrong. He is a ring-in. A hired brain. The entire reason he is there is to capture you and restart a little project you may be familiar with…"

Mmm… I'll be honest in saying I'm not the least bit interested in your forced drama. You practically told me all I want to hear; I get a free ticket kill Amata. Anything else you tell me in needless information.

"The DARK MAY PROJECT, ever heard of it? Do you get it now? Can you at least piece together the puzzle or do I have to guide your hand?"

I moaned without a shred of enthusiasm, partially because I wasn't interested and partially because I didn't actually figure it out. That's a symptom of my lack of interest rather than my failure of trying. A super computer can't compute something that it doesn't want to. I believe it is a behaviour called 'Selective Hearing'. I'm having a severe case of it right now.

The DARK MAY PROJECT was what gave me this life, this power. That's where they created the programming of my AIM field to be able to passively reflect any force put against me. I spent the majority of my childhood killing animals and eventually people with my powers gifted to me by the power of science. I gradually built my computing ability until I could control the forces directly around me. I owe everything I possess to that project.

Yet there is a long and distressing sob story in there, but the past is the past. Some things are better off dead and buried –

Like Amata and my real name.

"So basically your saying that Amata, LAST ORDER, the DARK MAY PROJECT and the organisation those girls belong to all intertwine with me at the centre? So what, we'll just kill them. I was planning to do all of those things without you telling me this needless shit."

Awaki sighed deeply. I obviously was nowhere near right, in her mind. I hit the bullseye in mine. I just couldn't care less about the details. I'm practically over the moon that I am being **force** to kill people. Why worry over some fine points to justify your killing? I don't need that.

"Ah well. Hear what Motoharu has to tell you and you might work it out. Piece what we both say together and maybe… Either way, rest assured that you were correct about one thing; every single one of those factors must be eliminated."

Awaki genuinely smiled at me for the first time. I gave her nothing in return, but suddenly she leapt from the seats and made a dash out of the eatery. I was about to stand up and stop her but was blocked by a filling cabinet appearing between her and me. She teleported it there, obviously. Shortly after a post-it note appeared mid-air in front of me and fluttered into my hands. It read the following;

'Thanks for breakfast, slowpoke!'

I'm going to hate this "GROUP".

"Dead and Buried"

**END**


	12. The Most Important Man Left Behind

"The Most Important Man Left Behind"

**August 25, 2020**

Motoharu assisted a disgruntled Accelerator into the living room and onto the seat he awoke from last time he was in the Tsuchimikado's residence. He held a similar opinion of both current members of GROUP now as he did then; they were both cryptic pains in the arse.

Motoharu had just picked Accelerator off the streets three hours earlier than the designated time set for their meeting. The clock on the wall showed the time ticking to 12:45. The relative ease in which Motoharu and earlier Awaki found Accelerator was a testament to the intelligence GROUP had that their fingertips. The information both had revealed to him over the proceeding days about himself only proved this claim. They had tabs on anything he had done, experienced and assumingly, will do. It wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to say that they could read his mind.

GROUP was split into a chain of command similar to most military organisations in operation globally. There was the high command, the "Heads" that formulated mission objectives to best suit the needs of the larger plan. Information on the larger plan is on a need to know basis and such information rarely trickles down into the lower ranks.

Next was the mission co-ordinators which developed finer checkpoints and actions to complete the mission objectives required. They aren't high ranking, but never see action. Members of this section usually had special talents or abilities to enhance their effectiveness in relaying messages and status updates.

And below all these were the field agents. They were the ones that put their life on the line completing the missions they were giving to by the higher ranks. Fatalities were initially high until the number of field agents drastically reduced to one elite unit. The unit generally has four members, but the current number of bodies stood at two with one journeyman. They work independently on smaller missions but cohesively (as possible) on larger ones. This type of work lead to something lesser than friendship but more than trust. An oxymoron for sure. They acknowledged each other's ability and they're importance to co-operate; the new recruit being an exception on this matter.

Objectively speaking, the lower agents operate blind to the larger project; hence they mainly work for the pay-check. If the money flow from the top stopped, the rest would abandon the organisation. This led to the Heads having rather meagre pay-rolls whilst the co-ordinators lived a life of luxury. It was the field agents, Accelerator included that got the royal screw. The lack of funds these agents received led to an increase of desertion. Other methods of recruitment were implemented to prevent this.

Essentially blackmail.

The poorly dressed blood boy feigned a smile at the contentious ghast. His eyes pierced through the dark shades into the listless eyes of the obviously uninterested Accelerator. Motoharu revealed a fawn envelope and threw it onto his companion's lap.

"Read up. Think of this as some extra-curricular activity to get into university. Pass this and you're in. You'll get your shot at LAST ORDER." Motoharu ordered with short, concise sentences in his commanding voice. He had two very distinct personalities, one when dealing with business and one attending to anything else. Accelerator couldn't determine which one was the real Motoharu Tsuchimikado; all he knew was they both sides of his false persona gave him the shits.

Accelerator brushed over the envelope's contents hastily. A picture of an expensive, high-tech laboratory along with several pictures of, what could be assumed as the same building, abandoned stood out from the multitude of text. The envelope saw itself closed after a quick proof read and placed back into the lap of its recipient. Said recipient then stared at the deliverer of the envelope, awaiting further information.

'That's it?' was plastered over Accelerator's face. He was intent on keeping reading to a minimum, along with talking.

'That's it.' was the counter body language. The Tsuchimikado's were artists when it came to body language. The brother and sister and most likely the parents would be able to have conversations without saying a word. It was the preferred and easier form of communication for them.

An exuberant sigh resonated from Accelerator. A smile appeared on his droopy face.

"Heh, I've changed my mind. I like how you do business, Shades." Accelerator jibbed and rose to leave. He was held back by a vocal hand.

"What do you know about the DARK MAY PROJECT?" Motoharu slipped out. He was greeted by a confused, unenthusiastic expression from the pale boy. Another dialogue in body language began;

'Oh, _that_ again…'

'Yes, _that_.'

However, the dialogue these two have with their bodies is as articulate as it will ever be.

"A little bird reminded you? Well, it'll be your first official mission when you become a member of GROUP. Just don't worry about it for now. Finish this without any hiccups." Motoharu spoke calmly. His facial expressions remained motionless with only his mouth moving. Motoharu must have either questioned Awaki about her earlier conversation with Accelerator or had someone tracking her and his every step. The later seems much more plausible.

"Look, I don't _actually_ give a shit about the details. The past is just that. I was going to kill them all eventual-" Accelerator groaned with the least amount of interest he could generate until he was interrupted by a familiar spritely response.

"Nyahh, that's a'right then, 'ey? Looks like it's all lining up for ya' then, right? Well lets go, ey? Get ya' started on that new bit of business ya' got there!" Motoharu cheered in his poorly constructed street dialect. He hurried Accelerator out of the Tsuchimikado's residence and followed after, locking the door behind him.

"H-hey! What's the fucking rush Shades?" angrily quirked the antagonistic teen as Motoharu bounded past him and down the front steps onto the sidewalk. Motoharu turned to Accelerator with his hands on his hips, pulling the un-buttoned, green-dyed dress shirt back, exposing his manliness.

"Nyahh, I'm off to secure some of our newest assets! Make sure ya' read all the itty bitty bits of info. You're gonna need it!" Motoharu confirmed that reading the documents provided was essential to success. He must have picked up somewhere in their meeting that his newest recruit was not planning to develop a greater understanding of the mission.

With that last informal request, the energetic fellow went on his merry way to do whatever he meant by 'securing assets'. His sudden departure and cryptic nature left Accelerator in a sort of daze of what to do next. He pondered finding somewhere to read over the documents in more detail when a voice called out to him.

_'You need to start your mission, __**now**__. Don't think he issues your mission earlier for no reason.' _A foreign and genderless voice spoke to him. Accelerator searched his direct surroundings for someone addressing him. Finding no-one, he figured the voice came from inside the Tsuchimikado's residence and presumed it to be Motoharu's sister, Maika. He was about to pry into the building through the door and surrounding wall foundations before the tone of the voice rang again.

_'Oh, it's obvious you haven't read your orders by the way you're thinking. Open them up and search for the word "LEASH". Don't disturb the girl inside the house. She's not part of this.' _the voice made itself heard again, with similar instructions. It showed no sign of hostility or malice. No sign of concern or fear. It was blank, informative and instructive. Accelerator's curiosity sparked at the identity of the voice and he aggressively retorted to the disembodied voice.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You better not be another one of these GROUP kids ready to spoil my fun. I've just about had it with the garbage this organisation has."

_'Don't talk, think. It's quicker that way. I was ready to respond to your foolish statement before you had even finished. Be a good boy and look for "LEASH" in the documents provided. Save me time explaining it.'_

'Tch'. The clicking of the ghast's tongue sounded when he surrendered to the voice's demands. Midday at the Tsuchimikado's residence would not often see a squatter sit plainly on the front steps with a bottle of whisky. A dangerous villain reading hazardous material would be even rarer.

_'Don't read them here, someone will see you. Those are confidential.' _It snapped with only a hint of emotion in the otherwise void, genderless voice.

'I don't kill out of necessity, so you'll be the first if you keep nagging me, garbage.' Accelerator thought to himself and received a sigh filled with pity in return for such a thought. Perhaps LEASH truly did communicate through thought.

The documents were swiftly processed by the organic supercomputer. On discovery of the information he was tasked to find, Accelerator frowned and allowed his thoughts to take control in communicating with the demanding voice.

'So, "LEASH", huh? That's your codename. Well, scumbag, you lucked out to be with the strongest there is.'

_ 'That title doesn't belong to you for now. World Champions are not World Champions after they lose two fights in a row.' _LEASH took a theoretical knife and practically gutted Accelerators pride with it's monotonous words. He conjured no response to her remark, which was perhaps expressed to show the hierarchy of their relationship. LEASH continued after moments of non-communication.

_'…Yes I am LEASH. I will be you're personal Telepath for the remainder of your time in GROUP. I work to assist you in completing your field objectives and to make sure the higher-ups know exactly where you are at all times. Think of me as your Guardian Angel.'_

Telepaths are a type of psychic who specialise in the manipulation of brain signals and AIM tracking and manipulating. Mind reading, mood examining and altercation, thought provocation, memory deletion and replacement; all of these are possible to specific types of Telepaths. Telepaths are possibly the original, largest and arguably most basic type of psychic, but due to the strain the ability causes on the brain, one Telepath can only control one sub-ability, leading to massive varieties of them. That is why it is speculated by some researchers that every psychic ability traces it's roots to Telepathy. LEASH was mind reader type; this allows it to converse with its target through thought.

AIM, or An Involuntary Movement is the bi-product of a psychic's power. It refers to the energy subconsciously released by all psychics. Each type of psychic releases a different type and amount of energy, depending on their ability and strength. An example would be a low-levelled Pyrokinesis psychic who unconsciously raises the temperature of their immediately surrounding area, or an Aerokinesis psychic enhancing slight breezes in inside buildings.

Psychics of similar of exact abilities able to detect AIM fields, the zone surrounding a psychic affected by their ability and if their powers allow it, communicate with them. Telepaths specialising in AIM tracking or mind reading do this on a broader or more specific scale, respectively. Finely tuned utensils can also be used to detect a certain frequency and type of AIM field. This method can lead to an easy and reliable way to track a certain psychic, if their power is high enough. Accelerator was definitely a candidate for such methods of tracking.

Considering LEASH's phrasing of introduction, it would not be a stretch to say that both Motoharu and Awaki too had specific Telepath's designated to them. The revelation that these psychics were at GROUP's disposable only confirmed, again, the organisation's strength and wealth of intelligence.

_'…We're going to run into some trouble if you don't begin your mission immediately. I will de-brief you as you make your way to the target location. Start by going to 6__th__ district, we need to hurry.' _LEASH prompted it's reluctant field agent into action. The documents held within the fawn envelope found themselves slid under Motoharu's door before Accelerator left. The files remained there, largely unread.

The ghast had a general idea of where he was going and what to look for; A destroyed research facility. Research facilities are a dime-a-dozen in Academy City, the city representing the uncontrolled and unrestrained force of science. A destroyed one is less common but not unheard of. Workplace accidents are common practice but barely ever accounted for. He felt the words 'hoof-work' come to mind when he calculated the amount of locations he's have to search before he found the exact location.

Accelerator had to travel through half of 7th district before he even crossed the border into 6th. The distance is roughly twenty kilometres, of which he walked at a brisk pace. The journey took close to an hour and three quarters, time spent half listening to LEASH's de-brief. Words and phrases such as "de-oxygenated atmosphere" and "Exterminated lockdown" stood out, but without context he wasn't able to connect the dots well enough. The most powerful psychic had one flaw in his otherwise omnipotent existence; when he is not interested in something, said subject tended to remain unattempted or half-assed.

On arriving to the destined district he quickly assessed the general location he and his target were located from a variety of street maps and information acquired from LEASH and narrowed the suspected areas down to three. The first two facilities that were inspected were fully functioning, hence not his target. The third one showed no signs of activity and was almost identical to the picture he recollected from the documents.

Target acquired.

The dark-aura possessed entity slowly trudged up a flight of intertwined steel stairs and proceeded along the similar construct balcony surrounding the facility ten feet from the pavement below. He peered at a security camera which did not seem like it was functioning and noticed many more on his journey to the entrance. A close examination of the windows would show that they were bullet-proof. This attribute was determined from the preservation of several high-caliber rounds lodged into the internally shattered glass. The contents inside the windows were difficult to assess due to the dark tinting and shattered glass.

He continued on in silence, slowly processing information about his target's surroundings. Sealed ventilation systems, tinted windows, imaginable distance from the beginning of the stairway to the entrance covered with security cameras and a high-tech steel reinforced automated door at the entrance were his revelations. He put the pieces together fairly quickly;

'Whatever was going on in here was something _they_ would have preferred to keep a secret.'

Add in the information of GROUP's interest of such a location and his mission objective became fairly clear, even without reading the documents.

_'Our objective is to proceed to a specific section of the facility. Don't take unnecessary delays. We are expecting hostiles in a matter of time. They may not be a match for you, but we need to recover the mark __**alive**__. You were given this mission due to your ability to numb your senses and your acquaintance with death. I suggest you disable your smell and taste sensory organs and mentally prepare yourself before you enter.' _LEASH informed it's comrade with what could be interpreted as friendly advice wrapped in an ill-emotional delivery. It's advice and directives received a simple click of the tongue from the sickly built teen.

'Tch.You're pissing me off your sack of shit. I should just deny you access to my thoughts...'

Ignoring LEASH's plight, Accelerator forcefully planted his left leg through the steel reinforced automated door and blew one half of the shutters into the dark, destroyed abyss that the research centre had now become. The vacuum seal the research centre was under since the lockdown procedure was released the instant half of the shutter was destroyed, creating a sudden release of energy. Accelerator felt it rush past him, though he was unfazed by it. The de-oxygenated air inside was slowly being replaced by the oxygenated air from outside. With his right hand, Accelerator threw the other half of the two part mechanism back down the runners it use to automatically follow and proceeded inside. The first step inside would have driven any other mortal creature running.

The smell of decayed flesh mixed in with a variety of pungent odours, none of them pleasant or common place in society, wafted through and now out of the research facility. The stench of death lingering a week with no ventilation created a volatile atmosphere. It was enough to falter even the diabolical monster at the facility's entrance; death was clinging to **every** orifice imaginable.

Pausing momentarily, the ghoul adjusted himself to manipulate the vectors necessary for him to continue. He temporarily became anosmic, actively denying any odours entering his receptors that pick up scents, namely the nose. The taste receptor would soon be disabled too. They say sometimes you can taste the air. He found this to be all too true and gagged at the 'taste' the air had, which was anything but enjoyable.

_'Now is not the time, but __**I told you so.**__' _LEASH received no response from it's comment, which for the first time generated emotion in it's voice, irritation.

After initial and debatably essential preparations concluded, Accelerator trudged into the burnt out research centre. Almost the entire building suffered from intense burn damage, evident on the walls and the damaged electrical structures. Computers were burnt out and screens cracked. 'Exterminated lockdown' must have referred to the 'scorched earth' tactics employed in the facility. None leave alive.

'_Proceed with caution. The majority of the centre's air filled with toxic levels of CO2. The lockdown procedure these facilities have involves an entire burnout of all related documents and information. The fire ate up all the life sustaining oxygen. You were chosen for this due to your background. You should be able to deal with what you will see.'_ LEASH announced to Accelerator before he entered the first room beyond the foyer. The steel-shutter door leading to it was slightly ajar at the centre. Signs of damage were present and bullet impacts could be felt all over the exterior. Accelerator dismantled the door and proceeded into the spacious room which had several hallways leading deeper into the centre. However, it was the 'furniture' that gave this room it's defining characteristic.

Unidentifiably burnt corpses sprinkled the floors of the second room. Accelerator approached a cluster of unremarkable bodies and judged them to be a mix of older men, presumably scientists and smaller ones, perhaps children no older than 16, based on body size. The bodies themselves showed a horrendous phase in the stages of human decomposition. Without natural factors of parasites and oxygen to assist in the decomposition of the burnt corpses, they had been preserved perfectly. Viewing the corpses now was like viewing the instant the blood began to boil and the soul of the now lifeless corpse drifted away. The last moments of each person forever engraved on the charred human shells.

Accelerator aggressively booted one of the smaller corpses in the pile along the hallway, out of anger at the recollection of his defeat. The body rolled and bounced with every heavy impact it received until it laid face up. Accelerator paused at the view of the face. He was startled by death for the first time in his life. He gazed upon an almost zombified expression of agony stonily imprinted under the 'face' which was now beyond human. Flesh had melted off the bone and pooled in clumps and hardened. Bone fragments were missing in parts where the flesh had melted away, attesting to the fact that this person was killed prior to the lockdown it undertook. Diagnosis: A bullet to the head.

A sick feeling rose from the pick of his gut. Accelerator never payed close attention to the remains of the people he mercilessly killed. He only saw them as an object to be destroyed, a toy to be broken. He never sat around to see the aftermath of his actions. He was preoccupied only with causing more mayhem for the City that had done so much wrong to him.

'Ha… ha… I-it must be the lack of oxygen in here getting to me… god dammit…' Accelerator accredited his newfound loathing of the bodies he marched past to the notable and dwindling amount of oxygen in the facility rather than the development of basic human emotions.

_'This is unexpected. They assumed something like this wouldn't phase a monster like you. Regardless, you need to continue, faster._ _We've intercepted radio signals detailing to the green-light on their counter-mission. You have thirteen minutes, tops'_

'Their? Who? I need some details, maggot.'

_'Now is not the time to argue. Find the mark; she will be the only human alive in the facility.' _LEASH's dead and void voice once again resonated inside Accelerator with elements of panic. Clearly, LEASH was predicting that time was elapsing on the successful completion on the mission.

Murmured cussing slipped from the teen's pale lips, mentioning something about disembowelment and how promiscuous LEASH was in it's private life. Seeing as LEASH communicates to Accelerator through thought it is no surprise it knew exactly what he said. A hushing of tone does not make conceal thoughts. Both parties sighed at their dismal level of co-operation.

Accelerator increased the speed in which he progressed through the facility. Every room was one of the same; burn damage had been inflicted on the interior features, such as lab benches and equipment and innumerable amounts of disfigured bodies. The bodies seemed to be outweighed three to one in favour of the smaller variety. They were all identical in size, oddly enough. The larger corpses, when examined, tended to fluctuate yet the smaller ones did not. The further he proceeded and the more bodies he past, the more the ghastly boy was inadvertently shifting his sight from the bodies and moving his attention to proceeding to the next room. He was subconsciously removing them from his thoughts.

The oxygen levels deeper inside the facility were similar to those found at the peak of incredibly high mountains, increased respiration and muscle pain began to plague individuals exposed to such an environment. As the only breathable oxygen was flowing in from the entrance Accelerator created earlier, after each seal on a room was released he would have to wait at least two minutes before proceeding. It wasn't ideal to wait considering the time limit LEASH gave him, but to hold your breath for an indefinite amount of time is tantamount to suicide. After all, he was still a human. He still required all the necessities to sustain life, O2 included. The previously explained method of exploration continued until a situation report came in from LEASH, none of it good news.

_'…We're out of time. Data feeds are giving me visuals on three hostiles proceeding to your position outside the facility. We still haven't located 7054. I'm getting orders from the top to have you pull out. ITEM moved much faster than expected, considering their leader is currently AWOL.' _LEASH calmly divulged. She received the expected response from her agent.

'I came this far, I'm not letting some bastards take my chance at vengeance. How far do you think what I'm looking for is after this door, LEASH?' Accelerator declared then enquired, with a large smile growing steadily as he calculated the risks. He was thoroughly enjoying the idea of fighting a battle with the odds stacked against him. Something as dangerous and stupid as this was the best way to get the ball rolling again. A massive victory. Decisive. The word victory is but a representation of a psychological state of mind, after all. The first step is always the hardest.

_'I know what you're thinking, but no. It's too risky. We need you more than this target. Bug out. You'll have another chance. It's an order… – S-stop! You'll kill yourself!'_ The commanding, balanced tone of LEASH altered again with panic when it discovered the teen pursuing his irrational course of action. It's lack of control on the situation at hand came as a surprise and startled it into pleading with him.

It was no use though. You can't bargain with a god, nor a god-like creature.

'Five minutes, I can do it. Piece of cake.' was the response given by Accelerator after adding in all the factors and computing his chances.

**Smash! Crumble!**

The door to the next room was utterly annihilated by Accelerator running full pelt through it at incredible speeds. He was practically flying, bouncing off the walls like a kid on a sugar high. No breath was being taken after entering the intoxicated room as he searched for something able to protect a human from the external hostile conditions. As he scanned the room, over the lab desks and cupboards until he noticed the remnants of a large cylinder, a glass container with some sort of tea-green liquid pooled on top of a platform.

'Perhaps a person could be kept inside and kept alive with the liquid' or something along those lines ran through his mind. The current room held no answers and Accelerator quickly moved to the next one, destroying the wall surrounding the door.

However, it wasn't only Accelerator destroying walls in the facility as a healthy explosion near the entrance of the research centre was heard when he progressed deeper into the volatile atmosphere. A blonde haired girl sporting a lovely red beret with her skirt dangerously positioned to show off her legs was near the entrance. She had been placing some sort of device on the foundations of the build, working her way out from about the third room, where breathing started to become difficult. She strapped them down and configured certain settings on the mobile phone attached to the colourless bags. Guarding the entrance was a young girl tossing a small container with an unamused look and another one staring blankly into the facility.

"Rikou?" the deceptively young girl questioned the other, still tossing the small container and catching it in a variety of ways.

"He is in there pretty deep. Perhaps… We don't need to do this… He'll kill himself…" was the lethargic response from Rikou. Her hair was a light brown that went just below her shoulder blades. She stood slightly shorter than her comrade, though her face looked at least four years older. She was wrapped in pink tracky dacks and a matching sweat shirt.

"Yeah, I super reckon. But… you know Frenda; she gets touchy if she doesn't blow something up after a super little bit. It's fine for you, Rikou, since you don't have to worry about your… super assets…Shiage will…" The other girl whimpered with her verbal tick, pocketing the small container then clutching her chest. After moments staring at her flat build, she glared at Rikou through her chestnut brown hair and grinned sinisterly. She trudged slowly towards Rikou, twitching her fingers.

"Saiai, no mucking around on the job! We've got some fireworks to watch!" The blonde haired, pale skin girl called out from inside the facility. She marched out with an expression of a job well done plastered on her face and revealed a disposable mobile from her skirt pocket. The three of them moved far enough from the entrance and pushed themselves up against the wall.

"Frenda special, 'Trap-Wall'! In three, two, one…"

The objects placed inside the facility detonated and the front half of the building collapsed on itself, sealing the research centre once again. Frenda, who was most likely a foreigner, grinned and clapped her hands together while jumping on the spot. Rikou turned to a black car parked on the street and gave it a thumbs up. It wasn't there when Accelerator came to the facility so it must have been the transport that brought the three girls here.

"5 minutes, then we confirm him super dead, ok?" Saiai giggled and resumed throwing the small capsule-like container.

Accelerator was feeling the full effects of adrenaline when the explosion went off. He had developed a certain tunnel-vision that directed all his attention to finding the mark, codenamed 7054. His search became even more frantic as the proceeding room had no outstanding feature that could protect a human. He could feel that his was losing breath, his thoughts slowed drastically and his constantly fought off the urge to take a huge breath in. He had only been denying himself oxygen for just over a minute; only a fifth of what he gave himself credit for.

_'…Accelerator? Respond…!' _LEASH's cries went unanswered as his cognitive thought drifted away.

Darkness crept into him once again, his memories of torture and enslavement rose from the pits of his mind. The crimes he was forced to commit, he relived every single one of them and the emotions he felt when he committed them. He lost himself to the repressed thoughts and was dragged from the currently deadly reality to a world of debatably more pain and suffering.

_'Don't belief it. Pull yourself out of darkness.'_ This was Accelerators interpretation of the words LEASH issued to him in his deluded and semi-conscious state. It had tried to convey the advice _'Don't breathe in, it will kill you. Pull yourself together, get out of there you heartless villain!'_, yet the information must have been fragmented along the way.

That's the funny thing about the human mind; If you feed it segments of information it will create information to complete the picture. The most common example is eyesight. The eyes cover a two-hundred and seventy degree cone of vision in front of them. However, the space between the eyes cannot be seen. Think of each eye to have one-hundred and thirty three degrees of vision. This leaves four degrees of space that is not actively seen. The brain creates the scene based of the information it has already seen and fills in the blanks. This is how illusions are perceived as well as decoding word jumbles; they play on the brain's ability to create information.

So considering that Accelerators brain was essentially a super computer capable of examining and replicating massive amounts of information, it wouldn't be hard to see how his brain created such a phrase most desired in a less cognitive state.

It was this phrase, this created motivational series of words that dragged Accelerator back to the world. Back from the pits of his mind to the darkness of the facility. Back to the mission. Still holding his breathe and restricting his reflex to breathe he re-examined his surroundings when a familiar voice echoed in his head again.

"Only 2 super minutes left!"

_'Your cognitive, good. You've not much time left, not even I think you can hold your breath much longer. Find a way out of the facility or find a spot in there where you can still breathe the deteriorating amount of oxygen. The hostiles have sealed you in, the oxygen flow has stopped.'_

Accelerator processed the data he received and continued another room further into the laboratory. LEASH sounded its protest, to which Accelerator responded with white noise. He had now denied it access to his thoughts. He was to do this alone, he could spare no more wasted energy.

The next room had a massive difference to any of the prior rooms. Large test-tube like containers ran up against the wall. Hundreds of them existed, each as identical as the last. They were sealed at the bottom and top of the circular glass, about a foot in radii. The bottom rose slightly from the floor and had a drain in the middle. The top was attached to a mechanical arm, capable of removing the seal. It's assumed that when the mechanical arm moves, the glass would move with it.

Most of the tubes had been emptied, they were not sealed. The majority had some amount of green liquid around the base. In became clear that these cylinders were what Accelerator discovered earlier. It was then that it struck him.

Identical bodies…

Massive amounts of inhibitor cylinders…

Research facility…

GROUP's interest…

This was a facility used to create the clone body guards that attacked him two nights ago.

"I think it's one minute now…"

An ill feeling swelled in his stomach. Whether it be his internal organs shutting down from a lack of oxygen or his emotions getting the better of him, he gritted his teeth at the thought that this place somehow assisted LAST ORDER.

With increased haste, bolstered by rage and increasing amounts of adrenaline, he examined the containers for a body. Perhaps that was his mark. It made sense. The only way someone was to live in this hostile environment would be to be sealed away. The clones were created and would be able to live in these tubes. All he needed to do was find an active one.

It took mere moments for the grand entity.

The tea-green tinge of a fully operating container in a near pitch black room would be nigh impossible to find if not for Accelerator's natural ability to enhance or dull his senses to keep him in stasis. The almost fluorescent colour stood out like a sore thumb.

He raced over, with anger in tow. His bug eyes searched inside the container.

"5."

They soon shrunk.

"4…"

He soon lost control and all rational thought.

"Super 3!"

A breath was taken.

"2."

His urge to scream suppressed the coughing and gaging reflexes.

"1…"

The blood curdling cry rose from within, draining his strength. It would boil the blood of a stone.

"**LAST ORDER!"**

He smashed the glass and fell to the frozen tiles, unconscious. He had neither oxygen left nor energy. He spent his reserve energy to curse the name of the person that defied him, that took everything he lived for away. Every second from here on out, Accelerator was inching closer and closer to the white light that would take him to darkness forever.

Inside, a presence similar in appearance to LAST ORDER floated in suspense, seemingly unconscious and motionless. When Accelerator smashed the glass, the green liquid flowed out and shattered the rest of the container like a leak in a beaver dam. Her body flopped out and landed the collapsed Accelerator. Within a blink of an eye, her legs twitched and she rose from the ground, pushing the ghast's head into the floor below. She is almost oblivious to his presence.

" "MISAKA will proceed with protocol to sustain itself in a hostile environment and search for an exit" analyses MISAKA as she declares her priorities to those present and applies protocol for survivability." The woman announced in third-person then proceeded to cup the green liquid pooling around Accelerator's body into her mouth. Her eyes are lifeless and void of emotion, similar to the tone of voice she spoke with. It was not dissimilar to LEASH's voice. However, LEASH's voice was genderless, while the current presence had a distinct element of femineity.

After engulfing a mediocre amount of the liquid, which she retained in her puffed-out cheeks, she began to exit the room. Before stepping through the makeshift entrance Accelerator made in the wall, she turns to Accelerators body and pauses.

" "Implemented objectives hold immediate company in high regards to capture alive…" reveals MISAKA to a very quiet audience which disheartens MISAKA's ability to narrate. "Should MISAKA sustain the targets life?" Quizzes MISAKA to herself, gargling the liquid sustaining her. MISAKA receives no responses from the RADIO NOISE network which concerns MISAKA."

"The Most Important Man Left Behind"

**END**


	13. Repercussions

"Repercussions"

**August 25, 2020**

The three girls who detonated the explosion earlier had gathered near the once entrance. One, light-brown haired individual was blankly staring at the building whilst the other two were having a lively conversation. They had no particular topic and seemed to bound into new ones constantly. Their directionless and pointless conversation came to a halt when the light-brown haired girl shook her head suddenly and turned to them.

"…I'm sorry… I can't see anymore…" a defeatist peep came from the detached girl. She hung her head in disappointment until the older, paler of the two girls came and placed her hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok Rikou. We don't want you pushing yourself. BODY CLEAR is harsh; if you can't see, you can't see." The girl twisted her blonde locks, tilted her red beret and poked her tongue out in a comical gesture. Rikou's saddened expression brightened to what could be described as a smile. It certainly wasn't genuine, however.

"Yeah! You're, like, super good at, uhh, doing… uhh, tracking stuff! Yeah, that's it! We super need you Rikou! Don't go pushing yourself! I, like, won't let you have any more of this super stuff, even if you begged and cried!" The chestnut-brown haired girl cheered in a convoluted manner, confusing her listeners and herself. By the end of her cheer she was fiddling with a capsule she was throwing earlier and waggled her finger.

"Saiai… even I know that's your nitrogen, not my BODY CLEAR… You can't trick me there…" A lethargic chuckle sounded from Rikou as she saw through Saiai's prank. The girl blushed and let out a defeated laugh. Her forced laugh was soon joined by genuine laughs from Frenda and Rikou. At the end of their fun, Frenda asked a more serious question to Rikou, who was now out of her self-induced slump.

"So Rikou, is he dead? He must be, right? There's no way there is still oxygen left in there. I want, well, we should get out of here. This balcony isn't looking too safe anymore." Frenda asked Rikou whilst demonstrating the source of her worry about the stability of the balcony.

Near the collapsed entrance was a rather large hole in the steal-meshed walkway. Massive pieces of debris made the aforementioned hole and the falling cinder had caused damage to the support structures below. Frenda only shifted her body weight slightly and the entire balcony shifted with an irony roar. Saiai squealed and tried to brace herself between invisible walls.

"…Most likely, but you read the report on this guy. We should make sure he is…" Rikou's worried opinion was interrupted by the sounds of the shifting steel and another poorly repressed squeal from Saiai. Rikou jolted and Frenda's blonde eyebrows pushed her eyes shut.

"I'll take that! Let's go before we take a ride to the ever-so-soft concrete below us!" Frenda commanded, regaining her balance and adjusting her beret. She rushed the reluctant Rikou and more than willing Saiai then followed after them holding a piece of white chalk on the wall. She drew the line all the way from the facility entrance to the beginning of the walkway, careful for it to be connected the whole time.

But to makes sure the line of chalk was connected, she had to backtrack several times. Each time she did, the screech of steel shifting made itself present, petrifying the two girls who were watching their friend from the solid footing below.

Sweat beads multiplied on her forehead each second as the swaying motions of the structure became greater. Frenda was a no further than five metres from the flight of stairs that would bring her to the ground below when she pressed the chalk too hard onto the wall. The fragile white piece snapped and fell through the meshed steal to the concrete twenty feet below. A horrified, defeated face switched glances between the chalk and the equally horrified teammates.

The two girls cried to the devastated girl to give up whatever compulsive action she was committing and to come down. Their voices fell on deaf ears, of course.

Frenda searched her pockets and removed a roll of white tape. She attached the end of the white tape to the end of the chalk lines and slowly continued down the stairs, making sure the tape stayed connected to the chalk. She would place the tape on the wall at intervals, though struggled at times as the walkway swayed with the wind. It was acting like a pendulum on the wind, the remaining intact support structures have probably been stressed too far from the constant movement; it was only a matter of time before it fell.

Frenda slowly made her way down the flight of stairs until her feet planted firmly on the ground. The second her red flats clapped with the surface below, she snapped the tape off and stuck it to the wall. A satisfied face was interrupted by a tackling hug from Saiai.

"…Don't let your explosive compulsions control you… Shizuri would have killed you…" said Rikou, who performed a delicate karate-chop on the classy lady's head. Between the shame of being chastised and pain of a guillotine hug, Frenda remained speechless for moments before pushing the clingy girl away and pulling out a box of strike matches.

Frenda struck a match against the concrete and the red head lit in a blaze. Careful not to let the wind blow it out, Frenda moved the small fire towards the white line she had just laid. Covering the match from the wind with one hand, she began a countdown.

"Frenda special, 'Improvised-Detonation-Line'! In three, two, one…!"

On the signal of one, she moved the lit match to the line and jumped back. The white substance alit with a burning passion and quickly rushed up the tape. The small fire was incredibly quick as it raced up the wall; it left a trail of black soot behind it. The sound it created was equivalent to a small hissing noise from a baby snake. Frenda's eye's gleamed with the passion of a thousand suns.

**Ka-BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!**

A rapid succession of high-octane explosions started occurring along the wall where the chalk began and the tape stopped. The explosions continued rampaging along the wall of the facility. The poisonous air from inside the facility seeped out of the newly created holes in the facility as the explosions continued to deafen all in the vicinity. The girls had their ears blocked; bar Frenda who was enjoying every second of the destruction like it was the ballad of Beethoven's Ninth. The creaking walkway was blown over by the initial explosions and crashed onto the ground below, inches before the fence surrounding the centre.

When the explosions finished, silence filled the air. Frenda was reminiscing over the explosions while Rikou looked content seeing Frenda enjoy herself. They were all oddly calm with the voracity of the explosion as it engulfed chunks of the facility. Perhaps they had all gotten used to their friend's obsessive compulsion.

"Super double-barrel shotgun!" announced Saiai as she danced to the black four-wheel drive parked on the curb. She was first to the stationary vehicle and popped open the door with a beaming smile that was shattered in to millions of pieces when she saw the driver staring at her, holding a piece of paper which was then placed onto the passenger seat before she sat down.

It read "Reserved for Miss Takitsubo" and in very small writing, almost fine print was the sentence; "No Saiai – No dibs, no shotgun, no **super-**shotgun, no dice." In even smaller writing, amazingly, was; "Get you hide in the backseat, kiddo."

"But I super **double**-barrel shotgun'd!" She pleaded with puppy-dog eyes to no avail. The man's eyes remained unamused and he pointed to the back seat with his thumb.

Utterly gutted, she slammed the open door and reefed the back passenger side door open so hard that it flung back and closed violently, clamping her clumsy fingers in the door. She let out a high pitch squeal, to which the approaching Frenda howled in laughter at. Rikou announced a routine "It's going to be OK" to the bawling girl, which made the victim feel anything but better. The foreigner assisted the child crying crocodile tears into the vehicle then entered the other side and took a seat. She felt something ruffle underneath her skirt when she sat down and pulled it out. It was another piece of paper. She took one glance at it and handed it to Saiai with a cheeky grin on her face.

"For you, love Shiage. You're getting pretty good at this, lackey." Frenda applauded, handing the paper to the child sucking on her wounded hand in the most grotesque way possible, slurping noises and all. She removed the hand from her jaw as it unholy unhinged to make room for the hand to slip out. She snatched the paper from Frenda like a child reluctantly taking candy from the man he jumped into the van with. Frenda was now reluctant to allow her slobbery mits touch her and "freaked out" when she realised what the child had done with them.

"You little grot! Sometimes these pranks of yours go too far! And I take that back, lackey! You only encourage her to get grosser and stupider with them!" Frenda raged, smacking the driver in the back of the head aggressively multiple times. He shied away at the pain and for the first time of the whole ordeal, Rikou let out a small giggle. The driver waved his hands around and his eyes pleaded with Rikou to make the abuse stop. This only made her laugh more. Saiai shed tears of laughter at Frenda's overreaction and abuse directed at Shiage before wiping them away and attempting to read the writing on the new piece of paper.

" "Don't slam ma' wheels' doors, ya' little brat." …What! How did you know! Super how!" Saiai narrated the writings on the paper with an impersonation of Shiage then burst into an inspired and relentless barrage of question. Shiage only shrug off her persistent requests. It was much the same experience as a kid saying "Are we there yet?", except the car was starting, not stopping.

The chestnut brown haired girl poked her head over the centre-console and in between the driver and passenger side seats as the vehicle began to move. She evilly stared at Rikou, mainly at her assets she was jealous of.

Currently, that was the seat she was sitting in. She eyeballed the seat endlessly, to no avail. Catching Rikou's gaze, Saiai gave the dirtiest, hairiest eyeball she could muster. It, as well, ended without success and Rikou just smiled at her comical attempts to psych her out.

Rikou turned to the window and away from the conversation and activities. She stealthy put some white substance on the back of her hand from a similar container Saiai had been demonstrating earlier. Her eyes checked the peripherals to make sure all occupants were occupied before sniffing the substance up her nose. Immediately after, her eyes became blank and she stared off into the distance. The party continued without Rikou's involvement and Shiage was barely allowed to contribute, leading to a possible reason the two sat in the front.

The light-hearted atmosphere did not last much longer, however. The four-wheel drive had traversed about two blocks when Rikou's small voice rebounded from the rolled up window she was facing and penetrated the ears of the automobile's passengers. She had most likely inadvertently seen something just casually looking out the window.

"Shiage… Stop… The laboratory… He's alive…" Rikou said in a bland, cryptic and unappealing tone. She placed her hand on Shiage's shoulder to derive his attention from the road to her in the fastest way possible. The atmosphere in the transport became as dark as its paint job. Frenda immediately started showing worrying signs, her fingers trembled slightly.

"Rikou! Don't say things like that after a job… You're gonna give my perfect legs permanent goosebumps!" She nervously spat and began giggling eerily after spitting out her punishing words. Saiai saw the clear signs of anxiety on her face and she too became worried.

"Yeah, super why Rikou? You know better! That kind of talk is, like, super taboo and stuff. Now you've turned this whole trip into a total drama island!" roused Saiai in her light and cutesy voice. It would be hard to take her seriously if the atmosphere hadn't suddenly taken such a plummet into the darkness.

"…I'm serious. His position has changed. We need to go back… Trust me, Shiage?" The light-brown haired girl declared her findings whilst blankly staring into the distance. She turned to only one in the car when she finished; Shiage. Her body language pleaded to the monster of a man. His sharp eyes were dulled by Rikou's plead. Her meek face blunted his disfigured edges.

Shiage pulled the vehicle to the side of the abandoned road and began manoeuvres for a three point turn. The roads around the facility were very thin, slightly larger than a one-way street. With driving finesse and a focused mind, he was able to turn around.

"But you haven't had any more BODY CLEAR, Rikou. How do you…" Frenda began to question, though was stopped halfway through by Rikou's gesture. She was holding a vial used to contain BODY CLEAR that was empty. Frenda shot daggers at Saiai, who cowered away into the back of the seat.

"Don't be mad at her, I stole it when you were being… dangerous… Although you shouldn't have showed me which one was your nitrogen, Saiai…" Rikou teased Frenda whilst denouncing Saiai at the same time. The girl with the blank eyes then suddenly positioned a finger pointing to the sky. "Company" she whispered. Frenda threw her head out of the window in her panicked state.

"There is a helicopter out there, coming this way! Get going, lackey! It certainly isn't friendly!" said Frenda from outside the window. She had put her head out to see what Rikou was gesturing to and saw a large transport helicopter racing to their location, the propellers thumping soundwaves into the ground below. Saiai was making complementary remarks to Frenda's frantic cries, such as "Yeah, see?" and "Yeah, lackey!". Rikou was oddly calm, perhaps she was being ignorant or simply too absent minded from using the BODY CLEAR earlier.

The black four-wheel drive containing the three girls and troll travelled underneath the appearing shadow of the ominous looking helicopter. The dark vehicle traversed the ill kept road with the sound of the blades above beating at a steady pace. As they came to the intersection of the abandoned research centre, a squealing of rubber was heard from behind. Another similar vehicle was hurdling after them at pursuit speed. Shiage slammed the pedal to the floor and raced up the street until they arrived at their destination.

As the vehicle in Shiage's control came to a screeching halt near their destination, Frenda dropped a small explosive out of the door she slightly opened. It rolled and bounced, ticked and flickered until it came to a stop next to the front driver's side wheel of the pursuing van.

The presumably hostile van had turned to a ninety degree angle behind Shiage's vehicle and completely covered the road's width. There was no way they would get past the new arrival and back down the street they just came.

They were ready to fight their pursuers, be they hostile.

However, the backseat occupants began to worry more as they saw the aerial transport's movements. They were professionals, assuming the helicopter circling them would be another deployment vehicle. They would be surrounded and flanked easily by the new threat and their dominance of the terrain. This is also disregarding the dangerous sociopath whom they tried to kill is still alive and probably seeking revenge.

It wasn't looking good, but there certainly wasn't any running.

They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Something a troll is used to.

The van's occupants pilled out and took offensive, yet defendable positions in a line around their vehicle and in the broken scenery. They were spaced well, professionally. Clad in clothes as black as the night, the only colour that resonated from them was the fluorescent green hue the goggles they wore produced. No verbal order was given for surrender, yet no shot had been fired. The tension began to build.

Shiage took charge in preparation for the coming fight. He pushed Rikou underneath the dashboard and ordered Frenda to retrieve a stack of weapons from a secret compartment in the floor of the covered tray of the transport. Frenda revealed a large, antique of an assault rifle with a drum magazine and several magazines marked "7.76" and passed them to Shiage. She herself took a smaller handgun and took two magazines that would fit in the weapon.

Saiai fidgeted with her remaining capsule, anxiously awaiting the inevitable. If she were to be placed in a church, she'd look the perfect image of a believer.

But this was a city of science; such thought is forbidden and ridiculed.

"We need'ta take t'e initiative. Frenda, I want ya to open your door, but don't get out. Cover Saiai, alright? Saiai, I need you ta guard Rikou, you know t'e drill. And Rikou…" Shiage spoke orders in such a manner that could only come from experience. Yet when he got to Rikou and looked into her blank eyes with only her body language depicting an element of fear, he smiled and whispered words of advice that she was fond of giving.

"It's going to be OK."

It was customary for Rikou to be the subject of many organisations desires. Her potential power literally knows no bounds. If unlocked, she could well become the world's most powerful entity overnight.

It was for this reason that the current situation was flowing as smoothly as it was.

Frenda, Saiai and Shiage took a collective sigh. The troll cocked the ejection chamber of his weapon. He turned to the blonde locks in the back and smiled:

"Would you do t'e honours?"

"…Gladly"

The sound of a button being pushed was the last recognizable noise before the chaos of battle drowned everything else in a sea of confusion.


	14. One's Second Start

_"_One's Second Start"

**August 25, 2020**

As Frenda pressed the dubious button on the supposed detonator, the ground transport of the garbed gunmen disappeared in a ball of flame. The explosive device that was positioned under the driver's side wheel detonated and sparked the gasoline and oil tanks to ignite. A massive fireball erupted and engulfed those unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of it. Destruction came with the fireball - the front fender and lower body kit was destroyed, the axels were irreparable, windows moulded by the intense heat and the bonnet missing in action. It was a scene of chaos. It was a scene that Frenda relished.

The result of the explosive fire was two of the eight gunmen that were near the vehicle incapacitated, downed by flames. Their clothes were lit up and burnt furiously, quickly engulfing them in fire, smoke and pained cries. The dark outfits they wore were made of polyester, a composite material that burns rapidly. Though the rate in which it burns is alarming, the worst aspect of the composite material is that as it burns, the residue it leaves melts and sticks like quick-dry cement. It effectively creates an extra layer of irremovable, scorching skin on the victim. The sight of their painful deaths was masked by the blackened smoke of the burning vehicle - their cries and cursing by the sound of gunfire.

In the insuring insanity of the explosion, Shiage and company began their defiant struggle. Frenda did as instructed and opened her door but stayed put in the backseat. Immediately, Shiage piled out of his door and used Frenda's as a shield. It covered the majority of his body. The only part of him that was exposed were his shins and his grotesque head when it popped up like a game of wacka-moles to take a shot. As Shiage was, initially, the only viable target, the four soldiers who had a line of sight at him opened an intense line of fire. The door held admirably against the barrage.

Yet Frenda's shield was slightly less reliable.

Although the vehicles doors were reinforced against gunfire, the windows were not. Frenda was letting poorly aimed pistol shots loose from within the four-wheel drive through the back window. She was obviously an amateur in firearms - her form was terrible and she was no way near to hitting the broad-side of the ban. The only semi-accurate shot was the first, before recoil and stress became a factor. The glass cracked from the first bullet, obscuring vision for further shots and later shattered. The two enemies who didn't have a shot at Shiage began opening fire on Frenda.

Frenda squealed when the bullets came her way. **Thud-Thud-Thud-Ting.** The sound of bullets being imbedded in the leather seat and clipping the back door gave a wryly relief to the blonde. So far her cover was holding. Barely. Six inches of leather backed by iron was only so strong. It was only a matter of time before a bullet slipped through the weakening materials and penetrated the seat. The vibrations the bullets made on the seat were more powerful each time they collided. Frenda hastily fumbled with her magazine as she slid the spent .45 out and shoved the new one in. In her unorthodox crouched position, she attempted a round of blind fire. When this had no effect on the amount of bullets contacting her seat, Frenda all but lost hope.

The four dark shadows focusing Shiage began to move in-between shots to attempt to flank him. They moved closer to the facility and away from the road. This would be Shiage's left, his unarmoured flank. He'd soon have to retreat into the car if they moved too quickly. If they managed to do that, Shiage would have a much harder time dodging their fire from within the vehicle, let alone retaliating.

Not that he was getting much time to take a shot anyway. The second one of his oily yellow hairs popped above the battered door a bullet almost took it clean off.

He was suppressed. There was a reason why suppressive fire is generally the most desired tactic in warfare - it simply allowed you to control the battlefield. Move your troops as you pleased without fear of counterattack, keep all your boys alive and make sure all of theirs are dead.

The opposition was surely an effective force. These were soldiers slightly more organised than the rag-tag mercenaries working for a pay check that Shiage and company were used to dealing with.

The scenario was looking bad. And was slowly getting worse.

Rikou was curled up in a ball, responding to every bullet impact on the vehicle with a full body shake. Frenda was pinned, although she was useless since the first explosion anyway. Shiage, the only person really capable of something in the situation was completely pinned and on the verge of being overrun. That left Saiai. With a concerned look on her face she looked at the grief stricken faces of her comrades.

She had to act now. Later wasn't an option. She quickly countered the amount of canisters that were in her pocket. Two - Not enough to survive three minutes. She had to pray that Shiage would be able to finish them while she drew their fire. Her ability, "Offence Armour" is like how it sounds - A good idea at first, but then easily countered. It is like a tank - a shock and awe weapon. However, it doesn't take long to figure out what you need to do in order to stop it.

Saiai cracked a canister canister and threw it outside of her window. After a few seconds she casually opened her door and stepped out in a gentle manner. With a childish demeanour, she stood in the middle of no man's land with a grin on her face.

"Nyah! You can't hit me!"

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey little bro, how you going? Look, I've got something I need to you to do. You see, someone's cheeky cat snuck into somewhere where he shouldn't go. And it's not my call, but she needs to be punished."<em>

_"…Ok, I'll tell Yuriko he is not to go there anymore."_

_"No… No, it's not quite that simple. See, she angered this starving dog. It hadn't eaten in a month and then Yuriko walked on by. She made him… mad…"_

_"Yuriko is a boy._

_"Mm? That doesn't matter. Anyway, now this dog can't let Yuriko get away with what she did. She needs to be punished."_

_"I'll do it then, I told you."_

_"No! The dog needs to! The dog will show Yuriko the full extent of her mistakes…Or…"_

_"You can kill the dog, save her from her punishment."_

_"…I won't…"_

_"Not even If Yuriko might be killed?"_

_"…! That's not…"_

_"Oh but it is. It is! Here, see for yourself…"_

_"…!"_

_"Kill the dog, Accelerator and save Yuriko. Otherwise…"_

_"No! I don't want to!_

* * *

><p>Accelerator opened his eyes from the scene of his past to an all too familiar picture - someone standing over him, examining him and the sound of gunfire. It was like he was thrown back in time.<p>

Yet, he was alive. Somehow.

What had occurred was that after the woman had stuffed her mouth full of the green liquid, she then proceeded to drag the unconscious child from whence he came. The ooze she kept in her mouth was ahighly refined variant of hydrogen oxide, water. To allow the organism respiration via gas instead of liquid, essentially to prevent drowning, the boiling point is body temperature. It re-enters the blood stream, becomes waste and leaves the body via the urinary tract, becoming a liquid again. As most of the nutrients and additives are removed, it appears as a filthy black sludge. Inside the tubes, the sludge is heavier than the hydrogen oxide, thus falls to the tube's base. It is then filtered and returned to into the tube as this refined hydrogen oxide. The cycle continues and the organism is able to survive, completely independent to the situation outside of its minute habitat.

Nutrients and body stimulants are added to the liquid and it is this that gives the liquid the dark-green tinge. Essentially, these are what accelerate the growth of the clones. They are what transform a single man-made zygote in a human being.

Before she made it far, a massive chain of explosions was heard from the front of the facility. It had been Frenda performing her obsession. Unbeknownst to her blonde locks, this obsession saved the life of the psychopath and his target.

The sunlight trickled into the dark facility and the woman trudged to its origins. The second she felt a breeze blow against her she spat out the remaining, unabsorbed liquid immediately. Oxygenated-air was now filling the facility at a much quicker rate than when Accelerator entered, simply because the gap Frenda made was much, much larger. She placed the child within passive breathing range before frivolously removing all of the liquid from her mouth, going as far as to claw her tongue and cheeks for residue. She exhaled a monotonous sigh of relief after removing any remnants of the liquid.

From there, she checked his vitals and confirmed he was still with the living. She sighed again with the feint pulse she discovered. Upon discovering Accelerators current status, she experienced a surge of acute pain in her joints. She gritted her teeth for the duration of the experience. With the sounding of a loud cracking noise she wiped away the tears that welt up in her eyes from the pain.

" "Primary target is still alive. Locating co-ordinates for subject drop off… Unable to connect." Says MISAKA in a confused manner." The clone murmured, staring at the disabled Accelerator.

The mimic was dressed in a Tokidawain school uniform. Tokidawai was a middle school. The Last Order doppelganger looked in her late twenties, at the least twenty-three. She stood two inches taller than other clone counterparts and her womanly assets were much more prominent. The drenched middle school uniform barely hid her "natural" body. The skirt acted like a mini variant and her blazer and undershirt clung to her body, partially because it was soaked and partially because it barely covered her chest.

The liquid was a stimulant for growth. Nine days previous, 7054, this particular clone's serial number, had been a fifteen year old mimic of Mikoto Misaka and the sole survivor of an independence enhancement experiment gone wrong. The nine days she spent in the micro-ecosystem of the tubes had aged her a decade.

The ghast let a series of coughs and gasps for air as light drew into his eyes. His first sight upon re-entering the world was one that filled him with temporary rage.7054, the LAST ORDER mimic was standing over him, with a typically clone-like blank expression. Accelerator's rage subsided, as he immediately found this to be an oddity. He recalled everything about LAST ORDER - her mannerisms were anything but similar to the plastic ones this woman was displaying. Though by appearance they seemed identical, they were obviously not the same person.

Her bland voice warned the child of his current predicament and her foot tried to reaffirm it.

" "Do not resist, or you will be killed. You are to come into the custody of the RADIO NOISE project." Says MISAKA as she takes the authoritative stance to complete her mission." Accelerator titled his head while lying flat on the ground in response. Her voice was identical to the emotionless clones he had butchered previously, nothing like LAST ORDER. It seems their similarity ended at appearance.

The clone attempted to slam her left heel into his chest to reaffirm here proclamation, though it is repelled. She was suddenly overwhelmed with shock - she held knowledge that he was an important reason for her creation though did not know his abilities, weaknesses or limitations. Her disconnection from the RADIO NOISE had left her without this valuable information.

"Pathetic. A whole army of shits armed to the fucking teeth can't stop me. Why do you think you can?" Accelerator declared, grinning slightly.

The grin didn't last long before it was wiped off his face by the thoughts that ran through his mind while he was unconscious. 7054 stared blankly at Accelerator as he slowly helped himself up. She was trying to formulate a new approach to capture Accelerator with the new info she was processing.

Accelerator turned to see the familiar charred bodies of the deserted facility. The foreign, ill sensation he experienced when first seeing them overwhelmed him again. Things like this never bothered him before, but since joining GROUP, he had slowly been becoming human in his perception of death. It was a bother for a monster.

The voice of the being that Accelerator had narrowed the blame of this human-isation rang in his head.

_"Thank god you're alive. We were worried we had lost you. Awaki is on route to take over your mission. You've been reassigned." _LEASH tuned in with new orders. Accelerator didn't respond, instead immediately denied LEASH access to his thought again. He didn't need something giving him orders like some obedient dog. He didn't need anything to change his perception of reality anymore. He needed a win. That was it. He needed to get back on track to being the "Big Dog" of Academy City.

And he wasn't going to get there again with the help of some disembodied voice. He got there on his own once, he can do it again.

Or so he thought.

" "MISAKA acknowledges force as a means of capture to be impossible. MISAKA realizes that perhaps a womanly touch may be in order for capture." Says MISAKA as she creates a euphemism for sexual persuasion." 7054 then declared, removing an item of clothing. She continued to remove the wet and tight clothing, although Accelerator remained fixated on sounds of something in the distance. A fight.

The sounds of gunfire drove Accelerator someplace where he'd rather not be. His past. Gunfire usually wasn't an instigator for flashbacks with Accelerator, yet it came with his permission or not. All he could do was watch them flow back to him.

* * *

><p><em>"See? Was that so hard? That's all you had to do. Poof. You barely moved a finger, but I guess it was too little too late, huh?"<em>

_"…Uwa…ah… Yuriko…"_

_"Well, what did we learn? Sure you killed the dog before he killed poor thingo-mo-bob here but the important thing is that we learn a lesson? What was that lessons?"_

_"Why do you kill him, big bro…?"_

_"Haha! "Big bro", classic! Accelerator, if you were listening, it was to teach you a lesson. What was that lesson? It's an easy one. You can do it. "Big bro" believes in you, haha!_

_"That you are mean and unfair! Even though I did what you said you killed Yuriko anyway! You're a monster!"_

_"__**No, you are a monster! **__I'm just trying to help you see that. See, the world is unfair. The world is mean. The world will take everything you love and cherish and destroy it if you don't turn on it first! Kill before it can retaliate, don't let anything stop you."_

_"…I wish I could kill you… __**You're **__the monster!"_

_"Say that all you want kid, I'm not the science-born abomination. You don't think I'm not doing this for your benefit? Everyone is going to want to kill you. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. They're going to want to restore the balance of power. You're just lucky I don't - I'm all you got. That cat there probably would have killed you too if it could. But it knew it couldn't, that's why it was so nice to you. It was using your affection as a shield. If it got the power to kill you overnight, it would have. Trust me."_

_"Ah…"_

_"So, what will you do next time something wants to get close to you? Something wants to be your friend? What are their ulterior motives?"_

_"…"_

_"It's kill or be killed, Accelerator. We live in a dangerous world, and it'll get that little bit more dangerous every day you are in it."_

* * *

><p>"Accelerator? Accelerator! I need the mark!" a fiery voice from an equally fiery red-head snapped Accelerator from his catacomb of thoughts. Perhaps "catacomb" was too lenient of a word for the swell of emotions Accelerator's memories of his childhood were causing to rise in him. The memories of a time before his power. The memories and childhood ideals he buried in order to act like the murderous monster he had become. They were sickeningly pitiable.<p>

Awaki was standing between the fallen stairs twenty feet below the entrance of the facility. She had come as LEASH disclosed earlier. He simply looked at her questioningly. How was he going to get 7054 down to her without killing either of them?

"Just throw her over, I'll Move Point her to safety. It'll be fine." Awaki called, beckoning him to do what she required of him.

"Sure. You heard her. Jump or I throw you." Accelerator said. He turned to the clone and flicked his head in the direction over the ledge. He slid his hands into his pockets while gesturing with his head and leant up against a half destroyed cinder wall, waiting for the clone's response. She remained blank, still searching for an option that would allow her to complete the rudimentary objective of capturing Accelerator. Time ticked as both of them refused to move. There was a screeching noise to be heard on the street, like someone had lost a tire in a car race and was continuing the race on the rims.

"Shit- that fight is heating up. There's gonna be Anti-Skill here anytime, maybe even reinforcements from both sides. I need her now and you need to get moving." Awaki cried.

"One condition."

"You want to bargain with me in the middle of a battlefield!"

"Sure. I'm not going to die, so you'll probably be eager to accept."

Awaki groaned. Not loud enough for Accelerator to hear twenty feet away without specific tuning, but by the pause in her speech, he assumed she had moaned - or something to that extent.

"You and Shades let me in on everything you know about LAST ORDER. No more shady business."

"Yes! Fine! Whatever! No secrets. Just hand her down already!"

Upon getting the panicked reply he wished, Accelerator pulled his hands out of his pockets and trudged over to the mimic. The woman remained defiantly blank at his approach. He leant into the woman, despite her being taller than him and aggressively whispered to her.

"Last chance." He whispered.

" "Mission status: Failure. END TRANMISSION out of range. Course of action: Suicide." Recites MISAKA" The child spoke. Accelerator grit his teeth at her robotic response and shoved the woman into the jagged, damaged wall.

"Stop screwing around you brute! You've got somewhere else to be too you know!" Awaki screamed. She was getting impatient. Although a self-proclaimed ace thief and spy, she didn't respond well to the sound of gunfire. Perhaps because of the size of bullets, she would find it hard to Move Point them.

"Hmm? Somewhere to be? First I'm hearing of this." Accelerator grabbed the nude woman by her arm, which offered futile resistance and approached the ledge again to look down at Awaki. Awaki was showing signs of anxiety. She had already pleaded for him to hurry once and was slowly losing her mettle the longer Accelerator procrastinated the transfer.

"You don't know! I thought your personal psychic would have told you! Look, you've got my job. I'm taking her instead. You need to meet up with Motoharu! Now hurry, please! I'm begging you!"

"Tch. Since you are begging…" Accelerator pushed 7054 over the ledge whilst returning his attention to the increasingly loud battle he could barely see. A mild squeak came from the woman he pushed before Awaki professionally Move Pointed her to her side. It wasn't until the woman standing next to her that Awaki realised she was naked. She removed her jacket and placed it on the now reserved woman. Awaki's face was covered with disgust for Accelerator.

"Accelerator! She is naked! Don't tell me you…!" Accelerator jumped down from the ledge mid-sentence. When landing he rushed in front of her, intercepting a bullet. A rifleman had taken a shot at Awaki. She had attracted a few straggling soldiers with her audacious pleas. Accelerator then saw two others turn from their current target in the road at to him. He reflected a light volley of fire by means of his passive shield. Awaki stood behind him, paralysed by the knowledge of how close to death she came.

"Naked?" Accelerator turned to a frozen Awaki with a voice and gaze of stone, unamused at whatever accusations she was making. Despite the coldness of Accelerators presence, Awaki became relieved of her immobility via his gaze. When feeling and motion returned to her legs, she nervously nodded and ran with her new captive through the destroyed fence.

As Awaki and her jacket's shadow disappeared into one of the numerous side streets surrounding the partially dismantled facility, Accelerator turned his attention to his frivolous attackers. Clad in black, they had dug in and were using particles of the destroyed facility wall as makeshift sandbags. As they fired upon Accelerator, he could hear fewer gunshots being fired further down the road. There was still a fight going on down the street, yet it was winding down. Accelerator was eager to find out the other participants and their reasoning for being in such a deserted place. Obviously up to no good.

Despite his eagerness to learn of this new information, he ambled towards the makeshift fox-hole. After entering a 20 metre radius of the foxhole the three defiant gunmen's ineffective suppressive fire halted. Three canisters appeared from behind the cover. Similar canisters were the result of his downfall before. A surprise attack works only once.

"Not this time!"

With a small stomp against the ground, a wall of earth appeared before him. The canisters collided with the wall on the opposite side of Accelerator. After the **tinging** of the aluminium containers colliding with the ground, a series of intense flashes of light appeared above the raised earth. The earth prevented Accelerator from receiving whatever nasty concoction that the flash bangs contained, its contents dispersed above, around and on the wall of raised earth.

This was all speculation, however. About the flashbangs' potency. Accelerator linked his temporary removal of his ability to the flashbang he was struck with by LAST ORDER. Whether or not these grenades had the deadly anti-psychic mixture was indistinguishable. It was just proper combat practice not to take that risk again.

He continued his ambling pace towards the foxhole, moving around the pillar of earth. In the corner of his eye, he could see three shadows scurry away from the defensive position and along the street. The shadow and booming noise of a helicopter was soon cast over him as he pursued his attackers. It seemed to be lowering its altitude towards the direction the soldiers fled to and where the last remnants of the combat were occurring.

He looked up at the UH-60 and rethought his current agenda.

'I don't want to kill them' Accelerator thought to himself. 'I only want one of them. Just **her**. The rest aren't my problem. You don't flog a beaten horse.'

As Accelerator was returning to consciousness and conversing with his GROUP colleague, on the street in the midst of battle, Saiai had stepped directly into no-man's land. She was purposely in the firing lines of all the assailants. Her shorter-than-short short-shorts and stylishly oversized jumper made her legs seem longer than they actually were. It was either these deceptively long legs or her irritable remark of "Nyah, you can't hit me!" that drew the attention of all the enemies currently pounding on the vehicle of her comrades.

The antagonists all turned to quickly take down the seemingly moronic child. Before they could open fire, Saiai crushed one of the capsules she held in her hand and simply taunted her opponents with a poked tongue and stretched lower eyelid.

When the soldiers adjusted fire to the girl from Shiage and Frenda, Shiage was able to lodge a bullet into the face of one of his flankers. The bullet, being a 7.76 round entered the cloaked clone's mouth, destroyed the teeth and gum tissue and fragmenting the jawbone. The bullet continued through the soft flesh and into the steel signpost behind it, then a few more inches before finally losing momentum. Had the bullet not hit the brain stem, the girl would have died an agonizing death from blood lose and a cease in motor functions from the destruction to the cerebral cortex. She would have been paralysed as she watched the blood pool around the ground where her head finally rested.

Five girls remained of the original eight that began the assault from the vans. Three of them now concentrated their fire on Saiai and one kept Shiage suppressed. The last was currently missing in action. Saiai, whom was standing still behind the vehicle, received full magazines from all of the soldiers firing upon her. When the volley came to an abrupt halt, Saiai smiled precariously as over a hundred shells which had been floating around her, shells that were crushed close to a point of singularity, dropped to the ground. The sound of the metal casings making contact with the road pavement reminds one of rain upon a tin house in a violent storm.

"Geez, done already?" Saiai gloated. Her pride was soon interrupted by a cry from inside the vehicle and the sound of gunfire behind her. The cry came from Rikou in the car. Her door was being assaulted by the missing girl, attacking from the side of the road opposite to the facility. Shiage was in no position to turn his back on the current opponent he had and Frenda was out of ammunition. It was left up to Saiai.

Saiai turned immediately to chase the new threat. When she turned, the other shooters had finished their reload and began firing on Saiai again. More and more bullets were being blocked, yet the efficiency in which they were was deteriorating. Saiai's ability allows her to draw upon nitrogen in the air and use it as a shield. However, since nitrogen is not in unlimited supply in a certain space, it can only be so long before it is used up. This is why Saiai used the capsules filled with nitrogen. She used them to add more pure nitrogen to her zone of proximity to sustain her shield. This was her defensive capabilities. Her defence was rock-solid, yet it was not infinite.

Her offensive works in much the same way that it uses nitrogen, yet the amount is significantly different. Saiai is able to manipulate the nitrogen to replicate a sort of super human strength, capable of lifting a train of its track. This power only exists within direct touch of her body and uses vastly more nitrogen in a smaller space of time – roughly a third of a capsule.

Saiai determined by the depth of penetration within her shield of each bullet that she had 20% nitrogen left from the original capsule. She would have to crack her last canister in order to defeat this threat, yet that left her with no time to defend against the other four.

'Like, one problem at a time.' she thought.

Saiai cracked the canister before leaping at the missing soldier. By now she was out of range of the other gunners and they turned their attention back onto the car, realising assaulting her would have no effect. The faceless grunt turned and attempted to fire a barrage of bullets at point black at Saiai, but it proved ineffective. She was so close to the gun that the bullets were unable to leave the rifle, and the barrel lightly self-destructed in the soldier's arms when one round impacted with another. Saiai grabbed the attempting-to-flee enemy with her right hand, dragged her into the road and proceeded to throw the now ragdoll body of the weapon-less soldier at one of the troopers firing on the van. The body flew close to fifty metres at over two-hundred kilometres an hour. It was like she was pitching in baseball with humans.

The corpse barely missed the intended target, slamming into the disabled van behind her instead. It was impossible to tell what actually happened to the body. Suffice to say, a fine red mist was all that was left on the burnt out metal of the van.

Saiai raced back to the van to guard it. Whilst guarding with no ulterior plan, she heard a screaming Frenda cry out to her over the sound of battle.

"What do you plan to do! There is too many of them!" Asked Frenda. She appeared to Saiai only as a disembodied voice.

"I super don't know! I don't think we can get them all!" She responded.

"PUSH!" screamed Shiage as he awkwardly shifted his body and rifle around the wheel in the driver's seat.

"Push!" Saiai asked.

"Push the car! Gettus' up that road and away from here!"

"What about that helicopter, Lackey? It just made another pass and it looked like it was going to land up there!" Frenda interjected.

"Like, one problem at a time! I can't last another super minute out here.

Upon request, Saiai began pushing the 4x4 along the road and away from the well-entrenched attackers. Although the tires were flat as a tack, Saiai pushed the van as far as she could take it with her ability. The rims and axis screeched the whole way, leaving a metallic smell lingering in the air, along with scratch marks on the asphalt. Saiai made about three-hundred metres until the nitrogen surrounding her was completely used up. She turned to see three of the soldiers pre-occupied with something at the facility whilst the last one gave chase up the road. She quickly made her way back into the van with Frenda. Everyone in the car acknowledged Saiai's feat in silence. Shiage stepped out of the 4x4 and took down the pursuing enemy with three shots to the chest. First shot missed all vital organs, second took the left lung and third the right lung. The stopping power of the vintage weapon would have debilitated the girl in one shot, three was for good measure.

"Out, now. We need'a better defensive position." Shiage spoke as he quickly abandoned the vehicle and helped a foetal Rikou out of the car before spouting orders to the others. "Frenda, grab t'ose bins and put them in a semicircle over 'ere. Saiai, grab anyt'ing hard you can find and fill t'ose bins. Rikou, stay hidden. It's all going to be OK."

Frenda crossed the abandoned street and grabbed the almost prehistoric aluminium bins. She made two daredevil trips and retrieved 5 bins. While she was doing that, Saiai filled the bins with the broken concrete and tar of the derelict road and surrounding buildings. Shiage covered whatever holes in this temporary defensive position by breaking off the doors of the 4x4 and tearing out the front seats. Once satisfied with the position, the entire posse hid behind it. It fell silent before Saiai shared some of the bad news she found out before pushing the car.

"Guys, like, I don't want to super scare you… but I'm pretty sure that 'Excel' guy is still alive."

"Shit, what? So Rikou was right? Man, those goosebumps in my legs are coming back. Shizuri is going to **kill **me!" Frenda lamented. She looked a Rikou, slumped behind the cover and then placed her face into her hands before grunting loudly.

"Howdya' know?"

"Well, like, those guys running past us now aren't running from us, are they?" Saiai pointed out. All of them looked over the cover to see the three enemies who hadn't pursued them initially run past them. Shiage whipped his rifle out and took down the three retreating soldiers with ease. He quickly went and retrieved the weapons of two of them and the three extra magazines he could find on their bodies before returning back to the cover. He handed a rifle to both Saiai and Frenda along with the magazines and gave them a quick tutorial. He looked down the crude and rusted iron sights of his rifle and mimicked pulling the trigger with his right index finger.

"Aim and shoot."

After waiting in silence under cover for close to ten minutes, nervously gripping the weapons they held, the sound of a single pair of feet could be heard walking past the now dismantled car. It stopped after examining the car and then a voice could be heard.

"Ahh, what do we have here? Rats hiding? Come out and play with the cat before I get the poison out." Groaned a sinister voice from close to the car. No one dared to respond or move to the voice. They all knew too well who it was – Accelerator. He would have recognized the removed parts of the vehicle in the temporary barricade the three girls and monster had established.

His deathly slow approach was interrupted by a call of challenge from the untraversed part of the street.

"Accelerator I guess? Your reputation proceed you. You did well to kill first unit. However. I afraid you might have little trouble with me. Revenge is powerful motive." called a woman. Her skills with the language were barely conversational, often using wrong verbs and missing conjunctions. Her accent also quickly identified her as foreign.

"Eh? You are…? You don't look like the rest of these goons, so what are you doing here." He responded. He referenced the girls in Tokidawain uniforms and green goggles that lined up behind her. There were seven in total. Ten if you included the three dead garbed clones now resting at his feet. These new opponents must have come from the helicopter that was flying overhead earlier.

"Stephanie Gorgeouspalace. Do you remember man name is Chimitsu? He was sniper that you kill!"

"Sorry doll face. I don't remember the people I've killed. Only the ones I can't."

''Doll face' he says? She must be a real looker. Movie star quality, maybe? Might have to check this broad out…' Shiage thought to himself upon hearing Accelerator's response to the woman. However, he quickly rethought his actions when he caught Rikou staring at him, waiting for him to slip up.

"Doll face! I am not doll face! You are killer that I must catch! If you live, you cause pain to world. I, be a mercenary, not let you do!"

"Hired gun, huh? That explains a little, I guess. The guys you are with are just as bad, so you're kinda hypocritical, you know? Anyway, look. I'll be frank – I'm not looking for blood today. You've caught me on one of my good moods. All I want is a woman named LAST ORDER. Tell me where I can find her and you won't have to die here today. Them neither. Think of it as a wise investment into your career as a sellsword."

"They bad, you worse. The boss say I catch you, money receive and revenge obtain. I not tell you where she be. The man put listener on me. I tell, I no money receive." Stephanie looked at the emotionless girls behind her when she said "they bad" and turned to Accelerator, as if to emphasis the "you worse" part.

"Man? What did he look like?" His interest piked. Perhaps she means Amata.

"I say, no tell."

"Right. Talking to you is like smashing glass against a cat pinned to a chalkboard. Well, thanks for the "help". I'll be off, whatever your name is. I've got other business to attend to."

"No! You stop here!" Stephanie screamed in an oddly toned passion. Her poor use of tone was due to her lack of knowledge of the language.

Those were the last words before what seemed like a massive shockwave struck the entirety of the battle. Shiage experienced a sensation much alike to a sudden burst of gale winds. It winded him for moments. Frenda looked as if she felt a similar experience, gasping quietly for air.

Accelerator quickly collapsed after experiencing it and the clone grunts behind Stephanie dropped her weapon and began to wander aimlessly. Saiai and Rikou too both began to act oddly. Saiai dropped the weapon she held and her eyes lost all signs of life, becoming dull and blank. Rikou quickly fell unconscious.

"Saiai, Rikou, can you hear me?" Frenda said, trying to keep her voice down but still attempting to be heard by the two spaced out girls. She received no respond. She put her weapon down and slapped Rikou's cheeks in an attempt to wake her up.

"T'ey're out, look."

Shiage and Frenda poked their heads over the barricade and looked on in sheer wonder – the entire battlefield, though in the middle of negotiations, seemingly came to a halt. The only soldier left armed and standing on the battlefield was Stephanie. Shiage saw the 'doll face' for the first time as he poked his eyes above the inadequate shield.

She looked her late teens, early twenties. Shoulder length blonde hair. Dreamily deep- sea-blue eyes. Sported a pair of round, gray rimmed aviators, though they rested on her head. She wore a light green-tee and covered it with a snow camouflaged winter jacket and track pants. It wasn't a particularly cold day, so it was perhaps her combat uniform. In her hands laid a massive machine gun - twice the size and weight of Shiage's rifle, easily. It had an air-cooled barrel and was belt fed ammunition in a medium sized box. It would easily hold 200 shots.

"Useless! Pick weapon up! Fight! Be up!" Stephanie cried at her grunts to try and get them to snap back into action. She kicked a dropped stock standard rifle of the clones, which were the several generations successor of the F2000, towards an irresponsive girl. Her words ultimately proved useless, as every single one of them began chanting the same line in monotonous glory.

" "MISAKA disconnected from RADIO NOISE NETWORK. Field commander not identified. Discontinuing activities." Says MISAKA… Says MISAKA…"

"Fight or kill!" Stephanie roared at one of her troopers, holding the machine gun to her stomach. The clone continued to spout the same monotonous words over and over until Stephanie finally tore the girl apart with her machine gun.

Shiage looked on in simple awe at the weapon's destructive power and Stephanie's aggression. If she realised they were hiding behind the makeshift cover, that weapon would have no worries tearing it to pieces. And there is no doubt she would, if they were found.

"What do we do, lackey…?" Frenda asked Shiage, pulling a now convulsing Saiai closer to her as to not let her injure herself. Frenda seemed worried about her two non-cognitive comrades. Saiai hit Frenda in the face in her convulsion rather hard, enough to bruise the morning after.

"Stop Saiai from moving. Give her a knock on the head, if t'at'll do. We're gonna leave by foot when we get t'e chance, alright? Drag her if you have to. I'll carry Rikou." Shiage determined, stroking Rikou's hair and observing the scene unfolding in front of him. Stephanie continued to demand a response out of the unarmed girls and brutally massacred them if they didn't respond. One of the disoriented clones convulsed violently, as if she was being electrocuted and collapsed. Dead. This happened to two others. Their fates were a scary sight, yet a far cry from Stephanie's brutality. The machine gun she had literally chewed the flesh and bone of the victim. Massive holes were left on the bodies of the clones unlucky enough to be chosen to fight. The bullets would take chunks of flesh and organs from the victim. It was truly a horrific weapon.

It was curious to think that Stephanie was perfectly OK with destroying her unit, yet unwilling to reveal LAST ORDER's location. Perhaps the clones were what Stephanie thought were "bad" about the RADIO NOISE group.

"Shit" Frenda curses. "I can't hit Saiai, she's got her passive barrier up."

"T'en wait 'till she has no nitrogen to knock her out." Shiage responded. Frenda gave a wryly smile in response.

Stephanie had all but annihilated her presumably loaned troop when Accelerator began to groan. She finally turned her attention to him and called to her prone opponent.

"Coward kill man on ground. Coward kill man with no weapon. Get up, die like man." Stephanie criticised, perhaps referring to Accelerator's disposition of her comrade. Accelerator formed no tangible response outside of gibberish. If anything, it sounded similar to a computer reciting code.

"Heh, if she kills him, it's like two birds with one explosive, hey lackey? He was fated to die anyway." She whispered. Shiage didn't respond. Frenda returned to watching the events unfold in front of her whilst waiting for Saiai to passively eat up the nitrogen around her.

Following the indistinguishable rambling, Accelerator was hoisted from the ground like a marionette with a cerebral palsy manipulator. He jittered, rising until he was left dangling inches above the ground, levitating. His limbs and head hung unassisted in the air. He was unconscious, being controlled by something besides coherent self.

"Now we run?" Beret-sporting lady questioned in the tone of an order. She was clearly being scared by the scenario.

"Aye." The monster replied, lifting Rikou into his arms. Frenda followed Shiage, dragging a convulsing Saiai with difficulty. They fled down the road in the way they came initially from. When getting into Stephanie's sight lines, they heard her cry out to them.

"Stop or die, criminal!"

Stephanie reached to her machine gun and aimed at the slowly moving Frenda. Frenda, though a good hundred metres away, stared past the floating Accelerator and directly down the, by perspective, miniscule barrel of the gun. She had nowhere to run - she was caught in the open and the only side street available to hide in was a good twenty metres away. By rushing to it without Saiai, she would maybe dodge the shots and live, leaving her friend to die and forever feeling the guilt of her friend's death. Try to escape with her friend in tow and she would become target practice. It was lose lose. Frenda decided on an admirable death.

Stephanie pulled the trigger on the behemoth. Frenda closed her eyes and awaited the impact as she tensed her body. A large **thud** impacted on her stomach and she relinquished her grip on Saiai.

Crouching to the ground, she worriedly moved her left hand to the spot that resonated pain to feel the wound. Panting heavily she anticipated the sickly disgusting feel of blood on her palm and fingertips.

Yet she could feel no blood.

In a sort of ecstasy, she searched for a source that damaged her. If not the bullet, then what? She found the cause to be a lot more friendlier than foe.

Saiai, in her uncontrollable convulsing state, had struck Frenda hard with her fist. Due to her ability and Frenda's anticipation of a bullet, the strike felt like a bullet impact. Not that she knew, of course, but it was what she assumed a bullet impact would feel like.

This then raised the question, 'What stopped the bullet?'

Perhaps Stephanie is unable to aim that weapon at a distance?

Or was the divine intervention the act of anything but a divine individual?

Frenda left those kinds of questions for the world to decide and concluded it would be best to flee in good health than stay and risk death again. With Saiai still struggling in her glazed state, Frenda continued after Shiage and Rikou, escaping the facility's proximity unharmed.

After Stephanie drew her gun and shot, the body of a levitating Accelerator veered into place to intercept the rounds. Reflecting off him, one of the burst of bullets returned and struck Stephanie in her left shin. It positively shattered the shin. Stephanie collapsed on it under the sudden surge of pain and inability of the damaged leg to support her weight.

Accelerator floated closer to Stephanie, oblivious to the fleeing members of the unit that almost killed him earlier. Oblivious to all, really. When Stephanie came out of her mental pain prison, she reached for a flashbang canister inside of her artic jumper. She pulled the pin on the container and threw it in front of her. She turned to block her vision as it blew up in the face of Accelerator.

The second the flashbang exploded, Accelerator's consciousness returned. He fell from his levitated position and collided into the ground with a heavy thud. He could feel a burning sensation in his eyes and a screeching in his ears.

He had little idea where he was. His last memories of Earth were that he was speaking to a hired gun. Nothing after that. Nothing he'd want to share, anyway. He suspected LAST ORDER's trickery.

As the ringing soon faded, he could hear the shuffling of someone with a broken leg hobbling around. He tried to open his eyes, yet the sheer sensation of the burning he felt kept them closed.

The shuffling stopped with the sound of a relatively light metal object crashing to the ground, almost on top of him. Glass shattered afterwards, with a few shards falling on him. He attempted to open his eyes again, each time being able to keep them open a little longer. Moving wasn't yet an option.

Stephanie had taken one of the 4x4's doors from the cover Shiage and company were using and placed it in front of the pain-paralysed-prone Accelerator, with the window facing the sky. She smashed the remaining glass in the window and placed her machine gun in between the frame. She then carefully lined up a shot at Accelerators right arm. She ducked her head behind the door and pulled the trigger.

Stephanie had taken extra precautions for dealing with Accelerator. She knew the canister would disable his ability, yet was doubtful enough to prepare for the worse-case scenario. It was this doubt that probably bought Accelerator enough time to survive this encounter.

Due to the injury she had unexpectedly suffered, she slowly shuffled around the empty battlefield to acquire the car door to shield herself from any reflection. This gave enough time for Accelerator to moderately recover from the flash bang - partial sight and full hearing.

Accelerator felt a bullet enter his arm and fragment on the asphalt underneath him, spewing back into the wound and scattering. It was a feeling he had gone so long without that it felt almost completely foreign. The pain shot his eyes wide open. Almost full sight returned with the pain. The pain of seeing the world was there, but was less than taking another bullet. If he didn't act now, he would die for sure. Adrenaline began coursing through his veins - another experience he hadn't felt since he was able to control his hormones via vectors.

This all spelt the familiar story to the Accelerator of late - he was temporary without his powers.

He looked up from the ground to see the blurry image of the machine gun retract from the car door window. He gave it no thought. He stood to his feet, clumsily might it be added, and ran behind the dismantled vehicle he was adjacent too. He cut her sight lines initially before he heard Stephanie taunt him.

"Coward much like snake. Take fangs and they run like cockroach in light."

"Yeah?" Accelerator mussed. "So which one are you?" A poor response. He was panting and clutching his wound, trying to prevent further blood loss. Normally he would be able to direct the blood flow away from the wound, yet his loss of ability made this impossible.

"You lucky, today. Boss want alive. I can do that. I am best at alive." Stephanie announced. She was only on the other side of the car but didn't move. She had no reason to. She had the weapon and following around tight corners with her injured leg would be a recipe for disaster. She could easily pick him off if he was to run away or charge her.

"Alive, huh? Heh. So what's with the dead clones I see over there? They don't look very 'alive'." Accelerator quickly peeped through the vehicle to see Stephanie standing with her gun in the travelling position. She was definitely nursing one leg. In view behind her were the bloodied corpses of several Tokidawai uniforms.

"I have heart of gold. I'm doing the world favour by kill them. Why can you not do same? You have power. Make the world good! But you make it bad, worse! Why?"

Accelerator didn't respond. He recollected his memories he encountered in his unconscious state. Stephanie fired several shots in the air to spook an answer out of him.

"Answer!"

"I didn't want to!" he screams back, jutting out of his reverie.

"Liar! I seen video! You happy when you kill innocent!" Stephanie immediately responds.

"It's… just the way it is. I wanted to be a hero but…"

"Stop lie! Hero do not kill good man! Hero stop villain. Villain be people who threaten innocent. You be villain!"

"Well how could I not! He morphed me. I couldn't help it. I was made into a monster. Constantly examined, probed and operated on. Forced to kill, forced to think of life as insignificant – not even God could stay true. It's like a mental home… You don't have to be insane when you go in, but when you come out, you are just as batty as the rest of them." Accelerator retorted, on the verge of tears. None would develop, though.

"This you know, but why still kill innocent?"

"It's only come back to me recently. I had forgotten, repressed it long ago. I don't want the blood anymore. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of lurking in the shadows." Accelerator looked at his black dominated shirt with white particles. Blood from his arm ran over both shades equally. The blood did not discriminate between the black and white.

"Man deserve second chance. Monster do not." Stephanie said as she finally gave up the waiting game. She began to shuffle around the car with the machine gun braced at shoulder height. She began to take a wider circling motion to prevent Accelerator from ambushing her around a corner. However, since she was moving so slowly, by the time she uncovered where Accelerator was resting, he was nowhere to be found.

She looked in and around the car, but could find no trace of him. It then occurred to her, the only other place he could be hiding – the cover where she took the 4x4 door.

She hobbled closer and closer to the cover. Realising how poorly defended it was, she fired a volley into the garbage bins before approaching closer again.

She was within two metres and could yet see anyone inside of it.

One metre came and she peered over with gun at the ready. She could see a mass of blood staining the back of the boy's shirt. His unmoving body laid flat on the ground, arms underneath him. She looked around inside the cover and saw one gun lying on the ground. She stepped over Accelerator from the front of the cover and then to his left hand side.

She nudged him with her bung foot.

He didn't respond.

She couldn't hear him breathing.

She crouched down and placed her gun to the side before she rolled him over.

As she rolled him over, she saw he was gripping one of the clone's guns in his good hand.

Accelerators eyes opened.

He fired the weapon sporadically.

Stephanie fell backwards, outside of the cover. She received a shot to her leg, midsection and cheek.

Accelerator dropped the weapon and took in a series of deep breathes. He checks one of the new wounds he received with his hand.

"So… Stephanie…?" Accelerator panted after catching a majority of his breathe.

"How…?" she wheezed back, coughing up blood from the serious injury to her stomach.

"What do you call … the character that tries… to kill the Hero…?"

"Villain…"

Accelerator wearily chuckled at her answer. He closely examined his new wounds he received from Stephanie's careless shots through the cover – two hits on his lower back and one on his left shoulder blade.

_"He's still there sir! Accelerator? Where have you been? You've been off the chart even before the RSPK. Your power isn't registering - I had to locate you by your thought patterns! What's going on?" _It was LEASH, invading Accelerator's privacy with it's out-of-character panicky questions. \

_'Heh… I'm a little fucked at the moment… You reckon you could get me out of this bind?'_ Accelerator thought in response. In actuality, he was pleased to have this invasive creature for once meddle in his affairs.

_'Awaki is one her way...' _LEASH began but Accelerator interrupted it.

_'I'm afraid it's the 'I need medical attention or I'm fucked' kind of fucked.'_

_'Okay. Is ITEM still sniffing around?'_

_'Who…?'_

_'I'll take that as a no. Okay. Sending an EVAC now. It's a Black wagon. I've cancelled your meet with Motoharu. He'll have to recruit the new member by himself.'_

Accelerator looked up to the sky and noticed his vision blur again. This blurring was not from the flashbang, but from the lack of blood getting to his head. That blood was draining out of him at a dangerous rate. He placed his hand on the old wound on his arm, then flopped it into the pool of blood underneath him.

"Stephanie…?" he called out to the girl he had shot.

No response.

He pulled the same hand he just moved out of the blood and raised it to see the maroon colour of his blood. He remembered here that, he too, was human to a degree.

"Alone in a pool of blood…"

He began to fall unconscious due to the blood loss. The sirens of ANTI-SKILL could be heard in the distance.

"How… nostalgic…"

"One's Second Start"

**END**


	15. Alliances

"Alliances"

**August 25, 2020**

_[Wow, it's been a while, huh? Anyway, thanks for reading. I could NEVER and I mean EVER get this chapter exactly how I wanted it. This and the combination of re-reading the story and finding literary short-comings made me delay it time after time. Well, it's here now. I'm fixing some shortcomings in the entire story and this chapter will be edited along with it in the very near future.  
>As always, I appreciate criticism. I'm getting back into it and the storyboard is looking more and more interesting each time I visit it, so hopefully you'll enjoy as much I enjoy articulating the fights of the future.]<br>_

"_HOUND DOGs have planted remote-detonated mines along all potential paths of the mark's escort vehicle instead of manned road blocks. Higher ups are refusing to further commit HOUND DOGs outside of evacuation as they've been reassigned to assist Accelerator and Awaki's missions."_ Motoharu's LEASH unit informed in monotone. Motoharu had already begun his pursuit of the target vehicle on foot throughout the backstreets. He was homing in of the vehicle through the fastest possible route with the with the assistance of the LEASH navigation. The tendency of the ANTI-SKILL wagon to obey the road rules assisted the Hawaiian shirt in closing the gap.

There were three stages to the at hand mission. The first stage was to isolate the marked vehicle from any friendly assistance. This necessitated the need for the perfect timing of two objectives; destroying communication lines between the vehicle and potential help and doing so in a location of relative isolation of the vehicle from the public eye. This stage is to be handled by GROUP's counter-intelligence department.

The second stage is to halt the vehicle without killing the mark inside. Preferably, this would have been done through the extensive use and coverage that the HOUND DOG corps. The HOUND DOGs are a military counter-measure to the increasing aggression of the RADIO NOISE organisation. Founded by GROUP's higher ups, they are majority made up of ex-military or mercenaries who found their way into Academy City. However, do to the desire to limit HOUND DOG casualties and the pressing need of their expertise elsewhere, the role of disabling the marked vehicle has been replaced by a single squad, access to a livestream tactical GPS, an array of remote detonators and minefield within the heart of the city. Mines in the history of warfare have often been used to replace actual soldiers and often act as an impeccable replacement. However, their use on a battlefield compared to their use in a lively city is not nearly as well documented. Civilian casualties and property damage are sure to occur with such a tactic, but what damage and casualties that do occur will be laughed at in the face of the damage The Butcher of Academy City had already dealt this day. The other drawback is the mark inside may be killed in the blast. It wasn't the perfect plan, but it was the only one that could cover the potential escape routes without extensive manpower.

The third and final stage of the mission was up to Motoharu. This stage entailed the coercion of the mark to the cause and the successful extraction to a safehouse. Blackmail is a very useful incentive in coercing a target to join your cause, but up to the present time there was little information to be used as blackmail. Or, better put, there was little information _useful_ as blackmail material. Motoharu would have to rely on a variety of interrogation techniques to coax the mark. This part of the mission was the most dangerous for several reasons; there is a limited window of opportunity to escape before potential enemies arrive, and the mark may offer resistance. Additionally ANTI-SKILL within the van may pose resistance.

The reason why Motoharu was decided to partake this mission is because he proposed that the mark would be a valuable asset to GROUP in their fight against RADIO NOISE. He helped create the mission objectives and details. This was essentially his will he was acting on with the green-light of GROUP and their blessings in the form of assistance.

Motoharu continued to chase the vehicle as LEASH continued to give him updates. The routine of the orders and the mundane nature of jogging eventually numbed Motoharu's mind into blindly following orders.

"_Counter-intelligence have just initiated their radio jam of the ANTI-SKILL network. The marked vehicle is in an appropriately isolated position to minimize casualties. I suggest you pick up pace as the HOUND DOGs have been giving the O.K. to take out the vehicle."_

Moments after LEASH's update an explosion followed by the screeching of tyres and the crashing of steel on asphalt rang out.

"_Northwest 250 metres. Follow this alley and turn left at the main street. At the second set of lights it's another left."_

The shades drew its pistol from the holder and began a sprint to the location mentioned. He weaved through the sparse civilians who fled in the opposite direction to where the explosion was heard.

The scene was clean and professional. A single crater in the middle of the asphalt road and a wagon on it's side. The middle of a road is the perfect place for any explosive device to be planted when death is not the intention of the ambusher. As motor vehicles that obey the road rules have a tendency to remain on either side of the road, the explosion near one side of a vehicle will utilise the weight of the vehicle combined with the force of the explosion to overcome the remaining fulcrum and cause the vehicle to topple.

As Motoharu approached the vehicle, he could here a single set of groans and moans from the driver's cabin of the wagon that drowned out his own exhausted panting. With his pistol wielded, he approached the window, now facing the sky and stuck his head in. He saw a single male ANTI-SKILL on the ground at the other side of the cabin. His head had been split open and blood had already dyed his dark blue vest.

"P-Please help me." the ANTI-SKILL pleaded. "I need you to call ANTI-SKILL. We're carrying a VIP with us."

Motoharu's expression, though hidden by the shades, didn't not change at the man's plea. There was something at stake here bigger than his life and allowing him to live may jeopardise his mission. The young lad lifted himself into the window and stared at the man. A feint light shone in the man's eyes before it was extinguished by the sight of Motoharu drawing his weapon and directing it towards the man.

A single shot to the heart.

After performing a necessary evil, the blonde lad pulled himself from the window and journeyed to the back of the van. He forced the bottom door open and it crashed to the ground, creating a puff of dust. There was no motion inside the van. He lamented the possibility that the inhabitants of this steel cage had perished in the crash.

Coughing from the puff of dust, he crawled into the wagon. He noted that the three ANTI-SKILL who were in the back were all unconscious. The mark was quickly identified after, laying slump against the back wall of the wagon with an unconscious ANTI-SKILL next to it. Motoharu approached the mark and took it's vitals on it's neck. Alive. Barely. As he did, he felt the body move in an attempt to brush him away, but ultimately failed to do so.

Alive, conscious yet exhausted. The first two parts of the mission had been a success. The ball was now in Motoharu's court.

Exhausted himself, Motoharu gently lowered himself into a sitting position against a wall a short distance from the mark to rest. Silence existed in the wagon, bar the decreasing rate of huffs and puffs from Motoharu. After catching his breathe, Motoharu broke the silence.

"You ever experienced that feeling when you were told something was really good and it didn't live up to your expectation. I'm not talking about a movie or something insignificant like that. I'm talking about something like how big Godzilla is and then you find out in actuality, he is only a toy who was made to look bigger by a smaller set." Motoharu chatted as he began to spin his pistol on his index finger between the trigger and guard.

"Well that was this whole experience with you. You were blown up to be some huge demi-god like creature. The higher ups would say; "Motoharu, you'll be killed the moment you get close. Don't you care about your sister? If you're dead, how will you protect her then?"" he sighed, stopped twirling the hand cannon and pressed the sights against his forehead.

"So guess what I would say to them. No really, guess." he pressed, but got no response. He restarted twirling as he began to explain.

"I would say "If I die, I've got a friend who I trust to take care of her." You probably know him. Yeah you do. You've fought him before!" Motoharu patronized, smiling and ribbing his conversational partner. With no reaction, his mood soured and he fixed his glasses.

"Well you almost ruined that today. Not that I didn't trust you wouldn't, but... fuck it was close. If I hadn't intervened you would have ruined my contingency plan. And we can't have that now can we?"

Motoharu lifted himself from his resting position against the wall of the overturned ANTI-SKILL truck. He cocked his handgun, waltzed over to the slumped figure and raised the weapon.

"You've got a choice. Join us. End this god-forsaken experiment, grant Academy City relative peace and redeem yourself. Or..." Motoharu shot one of the ANTI-SKILL who was knocked unconscious in the accident. "Sit by like you always have, watched everyone else do the work for you as you lament your position. Watch the innocents die and the blood accumulate on your hands."

The figure finally raised it's head. The brown scraggly hair of Mikoto Misaka rose to allow her eyes to look into the pitch black of Motoharu's shades. She was in an incredible weak state and struggled to hold her head up. After a prolonged glance she spat to her left side onto of the dead ANTI-SKILL and returned her gaze to Motoharu.

"Go to Hell." she spat before lowering her head again.

Motoharu responded by looking up, and around before walking over to the the back of the van. He struggled to pull the door close due to the damage the crash had inflicted on the hinges and the natural affinity of gravity.

"How about a little privacy?" he offered after closing the door. He crouched down in front of the defeated child and tapped his gun on the girls head trying to get her attention. When that didn't work, he used the end of the barrel to lift her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. Her eyes were defeated. Every ounce of life in them sucked dry. The scuff marks and asphalt dust that was caused by the crash exaggerated this effect, but hardly contributed to they child's defeat. Motoharu removed his shades and stared into the shell of Mikoto.

"When I said you've got two choices... yeah I kinda lied. You've got one. You're coming with me. Whether that means you come as my corpse bride or as my warrior princess, yeah again, another story." Motoharu was met with non-response as Mikoto's eyes refused to look anywhere but into his.

"You're sure you're going to do this? Really? How did that powerpack who killed hundreads, maybe thousands today suddenly lose the urge to live?" Mikoto avoided Motoharu for a few seconds before replying.

"He'll do what I can't. I can die now knowing he'll carry my burden."

Mikoto's void eyes shed a single tear that ran down the grim and grit of her face and plotted on her frizzled skirt. Mikoto had found solidarity in Touma's words, fake as they be. Motoharu felt how lamentable Mikoto currently was and realised that force would only end in blood. He knew full well that Touma was not willing nor able to carry the kind of burden Mikoto spoke of. However, convincing her would still be difficult. After long periods of isolation, the initial development of trust is the hardest to break. It will be like converting a zealot away from their order. Character assassination would be the most effective way of breaking this unfounded trust.

Motoharu didn't like the idea of dragging his friend's name through the mud, but this was bigger than him and his personal relationships.

"Mikoto, what if he struggles? What if he fails and is killed because he can't shoulder the weight of this burden the same way you can?" Motoharu provoked, tapping the gun on his leg as he still assumes a crouched position.

"If he would not struggle, there would be no burden to shoulder." was the flat response she answered resting her head on the wall of the van, staring at the roof.

"But what if he needs assistance only you can provide?"

"What can I provide that you will not lend him if you both desire the same result?" upon hearing Mikoto's response, Motoharu rose and sighed. She may be weakened physically, but her trust has already strengthened into a zealous logical defense system. Time to convince her was running out, too. No doubt a civilian had tipped the authorities off about the accident and extra ANTI-SKILL and even JUDGEMENT would be on the scene soon to ensure The Butcher of Academy City was under raps after the communication failure and radio silence of the convey. When the situation was about to reach a psychical resolution a tactical whisper entered Motoharu's ears.

"_Word is her best friend, one "Shirai Kuroko" had just passed away. Intel suggests that Touma Kamijou was directly involved in her demise."_ Motoharu's LEASH unit divulged, sliding the ace in the hole that Motoharu needed at the final hour.

"Mikoto, do you know a Shirai Kuroko?" Mikoto averted her gaze from the roof to Motoharu. "Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news... but she has passed away."

"You're lying." she snapped as her eyes dilated. Motoharu shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. To make matters worse, I've been told that Touma played a role in her death. I don't believe it myself, but what my little birdies tell me is hardly ever wrong."

Mikoto's lips began to tremble before her head fell slumped and defeated once again. The pat of tears on the steel of the truck floor began a saddening hymn accompanied with an orchestra of sniffs and huffs. Motoharu himself held his hand over his mouth and slipped his glasses back on.

"No." Mikoto snapped. "This is just a trick. To get me to come with you."

"I can understand why you'd say that, but it's not. Either way, you've left yourself no choice than to come with me to find out. JUDGEMENT will be here any moment and ANTI-SKILL after that. Unless... you want to be caught?"

Motoharu sheathed his weapon and extended the hand that held it towards Mikoto.

"Come on, we don't have much time."

The brunette hesitated, wiped her tears away with the back of her hand then grasped his. In a hurry, Motoharu quickly supported the majority of Mikoto's weight on his shoulder and began to lead her to the door.

'What's it looking like out there?'

_'Not good, you've got four ANTI-SKILL wagons inbound. E.T.A two and a half minutes. You've probably got JUDGEMENT operatives sniffing around out there somewhere too, thermals aren't giving us anything though. The extraction vehicle is already on the move, you've just got to get yourself and the mark out of sight and away from any inbound ANTI-SKILL.' _

Motoharu sighed audibly upon hearing the sitrap from his LEASH before leading Mikoto out of the van. Mikoto struggles to keep up as Motoharu attempts to swiftly sneak into one of the backstreets along the road. Successful in this first step, Motoharu guides Mikoto through a maze of backstreets. As the two go around a tight corner, Mikoto relinquishes her grip and falls to the pavement below.

"Shit, now's not the time" Motoharu curses as Mikoto taps herself on the head in a show of acknowledging her mistake. He is just about to help Mikoto back up as a voice calls from the direction they were proceeding to.

"I'm with JUDGEMENT. I saw her fall, is she alright?" The female JUDGEMENT member inquired as she displayed her armband and approached the two. She was rather tall and well-endowed with black shoulder-length hair and sported academic-styled glasses.

"Y-yeah, fine thanks. She was attacked by a pack of dogs and I'm trying to get her to the hospital." Motoharu babbled as he assisted Mikoto up. Instantly he realised this was a mistake.

"Is...Is that Mikoto Misaka? I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave her with me. I'll ensure she'll get to the hospital. Thank you for yo-" the JUDGEMENT member cut herself short after seizing up the duo. "You're under arrest for carrying a firearm! Do not resist or be persecuted by the law's of Academy City!"

Motoharu' had not actively displayed his weapon and realized that the JUDGEMENT member must have had some X-ray-isq ability to detect his weapon. Despite the woman's demand for surrender, Motoharu drew his pistol and directed it towards the woman.

"It doesn't have to get bloody. Let us pass and you get to live another day."

The woman had other thoughts, however. As Motoharu was supporting Mikoto, he was unable to react fast enough to a sweeping kick which saw him topple over and Mikoto practically thrown to the ground. She unarmed Motoharu, stuck a knee in his back, slapped handcuffs on him and left him on the ground. She then proceeded to attempt to do the same with Mikoto, but the second she placed a knee on her back to get into a proper position to cuff the brown-haired powerpack, the JUDGEMENT member froze stiff. Mikoto had electrocuted her on contact. It was hard for Motoharu to tell if the current she gave her was fatal or not. Yet at the very least, it was enough to paralyze her nerves. She smiled weakly at Motoharu who quickly concluded that could have and possibly still could be him at any point.

The smile didn't last long as the sound of footsteps of several people from the direction which the JUDGEMENT member came resounded. They both prepared for the worse.

Fortunately, the steps signaled not their impending gaol time but temporary salvation as the source was three HOUND DOGs coming to retrieve the duo. The were heavily armed; clad in body armour, a combat helmet, balaclava and packed serious firepower in the form of a world renowned assualt rifle. The JUDGEMENT member was quickly shoved aside, still stricken with nerve paralysis and both Mikoto and Motoharu were lifted to their feet and tactically escorted into a van that waited at the mouth of the alley ahead.

Exhausted and incapacitated were the duo as they rested together on the bench seat in the van with one of the members who rescued them. This member was seated next to Motoharu whilst the other two had taken shotgun upfront. A collective sigh of relieve was released by Mikoto as the van pulled from the curb and picked up speed.

"So whats the dealio with these cuffs, 'aye? It's mighty uncomfortable to have my hands get squished between this here steal and my ass, mate" Motoharu blabbered to the HOUND DOG in a mannerism unlike the one he spoke to Mikoto with.

"Ah, of course. But first thing's first..." The goon drifted off as he started shifting through his rucksack underneath the bench. He extracted a beige folder, reached over Motoharu and placed it on Mikoto's lap, who drifted quietly between the world of the living and dreams. The goon then went about attempting to remove the handcuffs.

"What's all this then? She gets a nice little gift the second you put your eyes on her? Sexism if I've ever heard of it." Motoharu complained. The HOUND DOG responded by pushing the free arm of one of the cuffs into Motoharu's arm. The blonde lad winced and gave a weary smile to the goon, who failed to return the emotion.

"But seriously, a mission already? Look at the state of her! She can barely stand let alone pull off a mission." Motoharu reasoned. "Besides, she hasn't even agreed to help us yet."

"It's not a mission. It's her 'incentive'" the goon remarked as he released Motoharu's cuffs. The lad rubbed the spots on his wrist and looked at the beige folder. He had been in this position before. The first beige folder. It didn't bring many pleasant memories to the surface, which made the ride to their destination all the more awkward.

"Alliances"

**END**


End file.
